Since its inception in 1989, the NESE has drawn global critical acclaim in hundreds of concerts on the world’s most prestigious stages. In collaboration with MidAmerica Productions, the NESE has been led by a roster of guest conductors including John Rutter, Peter Tiboris, Sherrill Milnes, Helmuth Rilling, Simon Carrington, and Jonathan Willcocks, and regularly hosts international guest soloists. NESE world premieres include Dinos Constantinides’s Byron’s Greece, Hymn to the Human Spirit, and Midnight Fantasy II for wind ensemble; John Rutter’s Cantate Domino, Distant Land, Magnificat, and Mass of the Children; and John Leavitt’s A Christmas Garland. The NESE boasts multiple US premieres, including Mozart’s Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, Reimann’s Concerto for Violin and Cello, Tchaikovsky’s Ode to Joy, and René Clausen’s Hellas: In the Name of Freedom. The NESE can be heard on the Naxos label in an award-winning recording of spirituals with internationally renowned mezzo-soprano, the late Barbara Smith Conrad.