Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras (CYSO) is an orchestral Music Education organization in Chicago, Illinois that was founded in 1946 to provide music education and instrumental training of the highest quality to Chicago area youth.
James Paul is an American conductor. He is currently the music director and conductor of The Shedd Institute's Oregon Festival of American Music (OFAM) and its American Symphonia, and music director of the Oregon Coast Music Festival.
The Grand Rapids Symphony is a professional orchestra located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1930, the Symphony is celebrating its 90th anniversary season in 2019-20. In 2006, its recording Invention and Alchemy was nominated for Best Classical Crossover Album at the Grammy Awards. The Grands Rapids Symphony presents more than 400 performances throughout Michigan each year, reaching over 200,000 people, and is heard in West Michigan on broadcasts by WBLU-FM (88.9) and WBLV-FM (90.3). The organization also implements 18 educational and access programs that benefit over 80,000 Michigan residents.
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Fort Worth, Texas. The orchestra is resident at the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall. In addition to its symphonic and pops concert series, the FWSO also collaborates with the Fort Worth Opera, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Southwestern Seminary Master Chorale. and the Children’s Education Program of Bass Performance Hall. The FWSO also presents the Concerts In The Garden summer music festival at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
Miguel Alberto Harth-Bedoya is a Peruvian conductor. He is currently music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
The Florida Philharmonic Orchestra was a symphony orchestra based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and serving the South Florida metropolitan area. With approximately 80 full-time, tenured musicians, the orchestra was led for most of its existence by British conductor and music director James Judd. The orchestra folded after extensive financial problems, performing their last concert in Boca Raton, FL, on May 9, 2003.
Brett Mitchell is an American conductor who currently serves music director of the Colorado Symphony. He previously served as Associate Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra from 2013 to 2017, Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France from 2006 to 2009, Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony from 2007 to 2011, Music Director of the Moores Opera Center in Houston from 2012 to 2013, and Music Director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra from 2010 to 2015.
John Read Giordano is an American orchestra conductor, professor of music, composer, and former concert saxophonist. He is Associate Professor of Music at Texas Christian University. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra where he served as Music Director and Conductor for 27 years, Founder of the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, Jury Chairman of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since 1973, Music Director Emeritus of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth, Founder and Director of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival and Conservatory, Director of Chamber Music for the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, International Guest Conductor, published composer and arranger with an extensive award winning discography.
Sarasota Music Festival is an American classical music festival held annually during the month of June in Sarasota, Florida, under the sponsorship of the Sarasota Orchestra. The festival was founded in 1965 by conductor Paul Wolfe, who remained director of the festival through the summer of 2006. After Wolfe's retirement, conductor and composer Robert D. Levin became the festival's director.
Louis Langrée is a French conductor. He is the son of organist and theorist Alain Langrée. One of his sisters is an amateur cellist.
John Morris Russell is an American orchestral conductor best known for his association with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He lives in Cincinnati with his wife and two children.
David T. Little is an American composer and drummer known for his orchestral and operatic works, most notably his opera Dog Days which was named a standout opera of recent decades by The New York Times. He is the artistic director of Newspeak, an eight-piece amplified ensemble that explores the boundaries between rock and classical music, and is a member of the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music.
Huw Edwards is a Welsh conductor currently serving as music director of Olympia, Washington's Olympia Symphony Orchestra. Edwards' conducting career began at age seventeen when he became music director of the Maidstone Opera Company in England. He later attended the University of Surrey, where he conducted the college orchestra along with an ensemble that he formed himself. At age twenty-three, he won a conducting competition which sent him to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He then held a lecturer position at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he was also a doctoral candidate. Edwards was conductor and music director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic from 1995 to 2002 followed by the Seattle Youth Symphony from 2002 to 2005. He served as music director of the Portland Columbia Symphony from 2000 to 2012 and has been with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra since 2002. In 2019, Edwards announced the 2019–2020 season would be his last with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an American orchestra based in Pasadena, California. In 2010 it took up residence at the Ambassador Auditorium, where its Classics Series runs from October through April. Since 2012 it performs a summer series at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden from June through September.
Victor Yampolsky is a Russian-born conductor and the son of pianist Vladimir Yampolsky. He is director of orchestras at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music, a position he has held since 1984. He is the music director emeritus of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, where he was music director from 1995-2004. He also is the music director of the Peninsula Music Festival and the honorary director of the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Before his appointment to the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, Yampolsky served as the principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of South Africa and as the resident conductor of the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the training ground for younger musicians under the auspices of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The National Repertory Orchestra (NRO) is an American summer symphony orchestra and academy that offers full fellowships to train young musicians for professional careers in music through performances, master classes and workshops. Based in Breckenridge, Colorado since 1993, its members, who range in age from 18 to 29, are selected from auditions held each year throughout the United States. NRO presents an eight-week series including two orchestral programs per week conducted by its Music Director Carl Topilow as well as guest conductors. The orchestra was founded in 1960 by cellist and conductor Walter Charles. The orchestra was formerly known as the Blue Jeans Symphony based in Estes Park, Colorado, and later as the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra based in Evergreen, Colorado.
Arthur Post is an American conductor. He was Music Director of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and the San Juan Symphony.
Jesús Castro-Balbi is a French and American cellist who performs internationally and is the Cello Professor at Texas Christian University. Born in Spain of Peruvian parents, he was raised in France and moved to the United States in 1996.
The Lubbock Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is an orchestra based in Lubbock, Texas and is one of the oldest community organizations in the region. The orchestra is composed of professional musicians from all parts of the Lubbock Community. The orchestra currently performs at Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Theatre but will relocate to the Buddy Holly Center for the Performing Arts following the hall's completion. The ensemble is led by David Cho, the orchestra's seventh music director, who has been with the orchestra since 2012. The purpose of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra is to enrich the greater community through symphonic performances and educational experiences.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
