Kondakçi’s engagement with Mahler runs deep. As a student at New England Conservatory, he reconstructed a performing edition of the original 1889 version of Mahler’s First Symphony, premiered by the NEC Philharmonia under Hugh Wolff and covered by The Boston Globe, GBH, and the Intelligencer.

His earlier appointments include Conducting Fellow with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. He has assisted conductors including Eckart Preu, Ruth Reinhardt, Tito Muñoz, David Amado, Morihiko Nakahara, and Christopher Wilkins, among others. In 2020, he made his U.S. opera conducting debut with Enigma Chamber Opera in a sold-out production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. The Boston Globe wrote that Kondakçi “commanded a keen chamber orchestra and deftly balanced its dynamics with the singers.”

As Music Director of the Kendall Square Orchestra, Kondakçi leads a uniquely interdisciplinary ensemble of nearly one hundred musicians representing more than seventy institutions across science, medicine, technology, education, and the arts. Under his leadership, K²O has emerged as a distinctive force in Boston’s cultural landscape, earning critical acclaim, attracting record audiences, and securing significant philanthropic support. His approach combines artistic ambition with a deep belief in music’s capacity to bring people together, engage with the world beyond the concert hall, and contribute meaningfully to the communities it serves.

Central to Kondakçi’s work is the relationship between music and audience. His concerts frequently combine thematic programming with spoken introductions that explore the history and ideas behind the music and connect them to contemporary life. Reviewing K²O’s October 2026 season opener, the Intelligencer described him as an “emcee as well as interpreter,” writing, “He brought together the historical, musical, and present into a well-delivered sermon.” The review also praised his practice of introducing each work immediately before its performance.

Kondakçi believes an orchestra should be a force in the life of its community. Through K²O’s biennial Symphony for Science initiative at Boston’s Symphony Hall, he brings together leaders in science, medicine, philanthropy, and the arts while raising significant support for local nonprofits. Most recently, the initiative benefited Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program in partnership with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Born in Tirana, Albania, Kondakçi came to the United States with his family as a political refugee following decades of persecution under the Communist regime. His grandfather, Beqir Omari, was imprisoned for performing Western music; his great-uncle, a physician and virtuoso musician, was executed; and members of his family were sent to internment camps. That history continues to shape Kondakçi’s belief in the transformative power of music and his gratitude for the freedom to devote his life to an art for which members of his own family once paid a profound price.

Following his debut with the Albanian National Orchestra in 2014, Kondakçi was recognized as a cultural representative of the Albanian diaspora and maintains an ongoing relationship with the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Albania.

In 2017, Kondakçi co-founded the Eureka Ensemble, a professional orchestra that gained national attention for expanding the role orchestral music could play in contemporary civic life. The following year, its Sheltering Voices initiative brought professional musicians together with women experiencing homelessness in a project centered on recovery from abuse. A NowThis feature on the project was viewed more than three million times, and the work helped give rise to the Women’s Chorus, which Kondakçi co-founded with David McCue in partnership with the Women’s Lunch Place and which has since served more than 150 women. He was later profiled by the Christian Science Monitor in its “People Making a Difference” series, which described him as “a dynamic force” behind efforts using music as an agent of social change.

During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kondakçi helped lead the launch of Boston Hope Music at Boston’s 1,000-bed field hospital, working alongside physicians and musicians to bring together more than 100 Boston-area artists for patients recovering from COVID-19. The initiative later expanded in a partnership with New England Conservatory and Massachusetts General Hospital to support frontline healthcare workers through private music lessons and songwriting programs, and ultimately brought live music to mass-vaccination sites across Boston. The project was featured by GBH and later received First Honorable Mention in the National Organization for Arts in Health’s “Arts Building Resilience” awards.

Kondakçi serves as Assistant Professor of Conducting at Berklee College of Music and as Non-Resident Tutor in Music at Harvard University. He is a frequent speaker on music, leadership, and community engagement and has appeared at TEDxBoston and the League of American Orchestras.

He holds Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory, where he serves on the President’s Council. He lives in Boston with his wife, Chloe.