Markand Thakar (born 1955, New York City) is an American conductor and music director emeritus of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra (BCO).
After two years of private study of counterpoint and conducting with Jacques-Louis Monod, he attended Columbia University in 1977, earning the Master of Arts degree in music theory in 1979.
Following seminal studies with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich, Thakar spent two years conducting the youth orchestras of Greensboro and Chapel Hill, NC, and then enrolled as a doctoral candidate at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music.
As a guest conductor Thakar has appeared with orchestras across the United States and Canada, including those of Washington, DC (National Symphony Orchestra), San Antonio, Charlotte, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Richmond, Charlotte, Portland, Wichita, Ann Arbor, Flint, Sarasota, among many others, and with the Baltimore Opera Theatre and Opera on the James.
Counterpoint: Fundamentals of Music Making (1990), issued by Yale University Press, in Italian by Rugginenti Editore of Milan, and in Czech by Nakladatelství Akademie múzických umění.