In addition to numerous engagements as a guest conductor, Mr. McMahon is music director and conductor of the Illinois Valley Symphony, artistic director and conductor of the Maud Powell Music Festival and Powell Festival Institute (IL), . Resident Conductor of the Rome Festival Opera, Ballet, and Orchestra (Italy), and Collins Fellowship conductor of the University of Wisconsin Symphony, Chamber Orchestra and Opera.

Mr. McMahon made his symphonic conducting debut with the Symphony School of America Chamber Orchestra in Superior, Wisconsin, subsequently returning as Music Director. In the same period, he served as music director and conductor of the National Arts Chamber Orchestra. This ensemble toured major cultural centers in Cleveland, Ann Arbor, Milwaukee, Washington DC, Madison, Chicago, and numerous other communities. They were a resident orchestra for the XIVth International Viola Congress.

In 1989, Mr. McMahon became resident conductor for the Lincoln Opera of Chicago. In this position he led productions of standard operatic repertoire. Simultaneously, he served as music director and conductor for the Northwest Indiana Youth Orchestra. This ensemble's tours included major centers in Italy.

Mr. McMahon's guest work has included, the Spokane Symphony (WA), Damiana Ensemble (Czech Republik), Elgin Choral Union (IL), Varna Philharmonic (Bulgaria), Forfest (Czech Republik), South Bend Symphony (IN), Northwest Indiana Symphony, Elgin Symphony (IL), Florida All-State Orchestra, Indiana Opera North, Marquette Symphony (MI), Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Orchestra of Colours (Athens, Greece as a semi-finalist in the Mitropoulos Competition), Southwest Michigan Symphony, Evanston Symphony (IL), Hinsdale Chamber Orchestra (IL), La Porte County Symphony (IN), and the Saginaw Symphony (MI).

In Rome, Italy Mr. McMahon has regularly mounted operatic productions including works of Humperdinck, Mozart, Verdi, J. Strauss II, and Donizetti, With the Classical Symphony Chamber Ensemble, he presented Barber's A Hand of Bridge. In collaboration with the Illinois Valley Symphony and Illinois Valley Community College, Mr. McMahon produced Moore's The Devil and Daniel Webster. He led Rossini's II Barbiere di Siviglia and numerous opera gala concerts with Indiana Opera North. He has recorded works of Francesco Veccia in Los Angeles, and a video version of an excerpt from Puccini's Suor Angelica. He has been responsible for a number of European premieres and thirty eight world premieres.

Mr. McMahon has studied with luminaries in the music profession including Gunther Schuller, Harold Farberman, Margaret Hillis, Gustav Meier, Maurice Abravanel, Lukas Foss, Daniel Lewis, Donarld Thulean, Maurice Peress and with Erich Leinsdorf and Leonard Slatkin at the New York Philharmonic Symposium. Mr. McMahon has attended the Tanglewood Music Center and master classes of Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, and Bernard Haitink. Other master classes include the Chicago Symphony Bruckner Symposium with Sir Georg Solti and a seminar with Giuseppe Sinopoli. Mr. McMahon has been active with American composers including David Diamond, Irwin Bazelon, David Amram, Harold Farberman, Larry Alan Smith, Ellen Taafe Zwilich, and others. Mr. McMahon is a composer who has studied with Harold Farberman, David Diamond, and Stephen Dembski. Mr. McMahon has a bachelor's degree in violin performance and two master's degrees in orchestral and opera conducting and violin performance from the University of Michigan. Mr. McMahon will receive a doctorate of musical arts in conducting, with a minor in opera production, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May of 2005.

While attending the University of Michigan Mr. McMahon received scholarships from the McFeely-Rogers Foundation and Mary Baloyan. He was graduated with honors and given membership in Pi Kappa Lambda. Mr. McMahon was awarded the Collins Wisconsin Distinguished Fellowship and the Church Memorial Award at the University of Wisconsin. In 2002 Mr. McMahon was given an award for Meritorious Service in Orchestral Conducting from the Illinois Council of Orchestras.