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International Conductors Guild
Dr. Anna Binneweg
Binneweg’s international conducting experience includes tours to Austria, Spain and guest conducting appearances with the Chernihiv Philharmonic, Lviv Virtuosi (Ukraine) and the Minsk Conservatory Orchestra (Belarus). Her youth orchestra experience includes appointments with the Houston Youth Symphony (Houston, TX) and the San Luis Obispo Youth Symphony (San Luis Obispo, CA). In addition to her guest conducting appearances, she is in frequent demand as an orchestra clinician and adjudicator throughout Maryland and the United States. She has served on the national executive board of directors for the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA) and has recently been elected to the board of directors for the International Conductors Guild (ICG). Dr. Binneweg is the recipient of the 2015 Annie Award for the Performing Arts awarded by the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County (MD).
Dr. Peter Cokkinias
In September 1979, Peter Cokkinias became Music Director of the Greater Marlborough Symphony Orchestra (MA) - now known as the Metrowest Symphony Orchestra (MA), which he founded and has conducted continuously for the past 41 years. Dr. Cokkinias is equally at home conducting symphony, opera, ballet, and theater orchestras. He has had conducting engagements with the Boston Pops , Boston Ballet, Springfield Symphony (MA) , New Hampshire Symphony (NH) and with All-State Orchestras in NY, CT, KY, NH. Peter Cokkinias has been music director/conductor of the Franklin Performing Arts Center’s annual production of The Nutcracker , and for several musicals, for 13 seasons. Dr. Cokkinias produced seven fully-staged operas as conductor and founder of the Tufts Opera Theater (Tufts University). He founded the Berklee College of Music’s Contemporary Symphony Orchestra and helped to create the musical theater program at Berklee producing eight full Broadway productions. In the Fall of 2014, Peter was awarded a sabbatical by Berklee College of music for travel to NYC to attend and research the Broadway revival of Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town. Dr. Cokkinias' conducting teachers included Leonard Bernstein, Boris Goldovsky, Richard Lert, Thomas Schippers, Vytautas Marijosius, and Gustav Meier. He attended conducting masterclasses with Aaron Copland, Max Rudolf, Louis Lane, André Previn, and Seiji Ozawa. Dr. Cokkinias' professorship positions have included Tufts University , Boston Conservatory , and Berklee College of Music. He is a graduate of Hartt College (BM, BM ED), Manhattan School of Music (MM), and College-Conservatory University of Cincinnati (DMA). His principal clarinet teachers were Robert Marcellus, Bernard Portnoy, Herbert Blayman, Henry Larsen, Harvey Brigham. As a busy freelance clarinetist and woodwind specialist/ clinician, Peter Cokkinias has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Ballet Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh (PA), Springfield (MA) orchestras and in major Broadway theaters in Greater Boston and Providence, and clarinet finalist for both the Boston, and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. He is a founding member of the Boston Saxophone Quartet and administers their Noteworthy Scholars program, featuring First Night Boston performances of new works by high-school-aged composers. Dr. Cokkinias is a member of Board of Directors of the International Conductors Guild and a member of the Mentoring/Consulting Committee.
Dr. Stephen Czarkowski
Dr. Edward Cumming
As a musician, performer, educator and conductor, Edward Cumming has distinguished himself in a career that has taken him all over the world. For a decade, he was Music Director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, hailed for its remarkable artistic growth during his tenure. His appointment came after a two-year search process involving nearly 300 applicants from around the world. Before coming to Hartford, Cumming was Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, where he stepped in on short notice to conduct a program of which the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote, “some conductors could not do as well even with months to prepare.” As Resident Conductor of the Florida Orchestra, Cumming conducted a recording of the “Star Spangled Banner” with Whitney Houston and the Florida Orchestra for Super Bowl XXV. In Europe, Mr. Cumming has led the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada (Spain), the Ceske Budejovice Chamber Philharmonia (Czech Republic), the BBC Ulster Orchestra (Northern Ireland), Belgrade Philharmonic (Serbia) and the Sinfonica di Roma. He has conducted ensembles throughout the United States, including the Los Angeles, Rochester and Buffalo Philharmonic orchestras, the Detroit, San Diego, San Antonio and Oregon Symphony orchestras, and the Boston Pops. He has been a guest of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Be’er Sheva Sinfonietta. Recently, he made his South American debut with the Filarmónica de Bogotá, conducting Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande on short notice. Artists with whom he has performed include Yo Yo Ma, Elmar Oliveira, Sarah Chang, Joshua Bell, Doc Severinson, James Taylor, Stefan Jackiw and Emmanuel Ax. Cumming has taught at colleges all over the country, including Yale University, California State University (Fullerton), University of South Florida, and Pacific University. During his time in Pittsburgh, he was Music Director of the nationally-acclaimed Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, one of only five orchestras invited to the biennial National Youth Orchestra Festival. He was the founding Music Director of the Pacific Symphony Institute, and has also taught at the Orange County High School for the Arts. Presently, he is Director of Orchestral Activities at The Hartt School. Mr. Cumming studied at Yale University, where he received a Doctorate in Music. As an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, he was awarded the prestigious Eisner Prize for Creative Achievement in the Arts. In May 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Trinity College.
Dr. Thomas Gamboa
Dr. Thomas Gamboa serves as the Director of University Bands and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. At UW-Milwaukee, Dr. Gamboa oversees all aspects of the band program, guides the graduate wind conducting area, and serves as music director of the New Music Ensemble and the Wind Ensemble, the University’s premier wind band.
Previously, Dr. Gamboa was the Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Wind Studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He served as the music director of the CCM Wind Ensemble, taught undergraduate- and graduate-level conducting courses, supervised music education interns, taught graduate-level wind literature courses, and directed the Doctoral Cognate Program in Wind Conducting.
Dr. Gamboa is originally from San Diego, California and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education and Music Performance in bassoon from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He also earned a Master of Music degree in Conducting from Northwestern University studying with Mallory Thompson, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the University of Michigan studying with Michael Haithcock.
An accomplished conductor, Gamboa previously held the rank of Captain and served active duty as Conductor and Commander of the United States Air Force Band at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. He later served as Associate Conductor and Flight Commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Band at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. He earned his commission from Officer Training School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama in February 2011. He traveled with the USAF Band on numerous national and international tours including Spain, Germany, Turkey, Qatar, and Kuwait. In 2011, Gamboa was involved with the planning, execution, and editing of the final television broadcast of the band for their “Holiday Notes from Home 2011” performance, which featured guest artists Little Big Town and Lee Ann Womack. The Band of the Air Force Reserve celebrated a historic second nomination for an Emmy Award in Entertainment Programming for this broadcast. The performance was viewed by 1.1 million in 174 countries.
Dr. Gamboa’s scholarly and creative activities include peer-reviewed publications in the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) Journal, contributed to The Horizon Leans Forward: Stories of Courage, Strength, and Triumph of Underrepresented Communities in the Wind Band Field, presentations throughout the United States and internationally, producing recording albums through Klavier Records, and various guest conducting engagements with honor bands and professional ensembles worldwide including the West Point Band at the U.S. Military Academy.
A seasoned educator, Gamboa taught and served as the Instrumental Music Director and Music Department Chair at West Adams Preparatory High School in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Central Los Angeles. During his tenure, he founded and conducted the high school’s marching band, wind ensemble, chamber orchestra, and symphonic orchestra. He was also an instructor of conducting and chamber music for the National High School Music Institute where he served as Assistant Conductor for the Wind Ensemble. Dr. Gamboa also served as co-conductor of the Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble Symphonic Winds and music director of the Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble Chamber Winds. Additionally, Gamboa teaches drum major camps as a Head Instructor with the United Spirit Association during the summer. He currently serves as the Chair of the Conducting Curriculum Team where he designs the conducting program and trains drum major camp instructors. Dr. Gamboa continues to be in demand as a speaker, presenter, and conductor throughout the United States and abroad. Dr. Maria Mercedes Diaz Garcia
Dr. Mercedes Diaz Garcia has conducted in important halls such as the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg and Sendesaal, Bremen with her concerts broadcasted by the Deutschlandfunk Kultur in Germany. She has conducted orchestras in North America, South America and Europe, participating in festivals such as MIMO in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and The National Music Festival (USA). Her passion for creative programming and contemporary music led her to found the VIVE! Ensemble. Since 2015 they have performed Kaija Saariaho’s Opera Emilie, the chamber versions of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, plus many other compositions—standard literature and new works alike— including several premieres. VIVE! was invited in 2017 to perform in the annual New Music Gathering (celebrated in a different US city every year), were featured in the Toledo Museum of Art Great Performances series and were engaged for a tour that took them to Cincinnati, Nashville, and Dallas in the summer of 2018. Dr. Diaz Garcia has received instruction from influential conductors such as Edo de Waart, Cliff Colnot, Jessica Cottis, Kenneth Kiesler, and Paavo Jarvi, among others. In 2017 and 2018 she was invited to be artist-in-residence/conductor at the Banf Centre for the Arts and Creativity (Canada) to work with the Ensemble Evolution.
Dr. Diaz Garcia began her musical career as an oboist and pianist, receiving advanced degrees in both instruments, playing in orchestras in Spain, Germany and England, and recording as soloist for Spanish Television. She was awarded a tenured position from the Ministry of Education to teach oboe in National Conservatories in Spain and held professorships in Murcia and Madrid. In the United States she has taught conducting at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and at Bowling Green State University. Dr. Mercedes Diaz Garcia served as Conducting Fellow/Assistant Conductor of Orchestras during her doctorate at BGSU where she also conducted the New Music Ensemble. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on aspects of time in contemporary music. She received the Katzner Award as well as Pro Musica Scholarship Award, both in recognition of her outstanding academic and artistic work during her doctoral studies. Dr. Diaz Garcia has performed many premieres, most recently the world premiere of Leo Brower’s Variaciones Concertantes (Brower is a distinguished composer from Latin America, commissionedby the Berlin Philharmonic), Effrain Oscher along with Rachel Walker, Hong Da Chin, Dimitri Papageourgiou and Christopher Dietz, among many others. With Praecepta—an organization of young American composers— she was conductor from 2015 until 2018 of their annual micro-opera performances featuring emerging composers. She is also conductor and co-director of Hamburg Dialogues, a New Music Festival in its third season based in Germany
Mr. John Gingrich
JOHN GINGRICH has been active in the not-for-profit and for-profit performing arts world for almost 45 years and was honored by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters with the Fan Taylor Award for service to the field in 1992. He founded John Gingrich Management in 1983 after many years of experience in management, booking and public relations Beginning as the first graduate assistant with Penn State’s Artists Series, John moved to New York where he’s served as president of Concert Artists Guild (CAG), Opera Managers Association, the National Association of Performing Arts Managers and Agents (NAPAMA), and the Association of American Dance Companies (AADC) – predecessor of Dance USA. He was the first commercial agent to serve on a National Endowment for the Arts review panel (1983 with four more to follow). He also was board secretary for Chamber Music America (CMA) and Dance Perspectives Foundation, while remaining active in a wide range of civic, church and cultural activities. A career highlight was the production of the AIDS Quilt Songbook at Lincoln Center in June 1992.
Mr. Lawrence Isaacson
Lawrence Isaacson has had a highly diverse career as a performer, conductor, educator and administrator. Originally from Long Island, NY, he attended Northwestern University for his Undergraduate degree. As a conductor, Mr. Isaacson was Founder, Conductor and Music Director of Boston-based Symphony Nova for ten years. As the only post-graduate professional training orchestra in New England, their mission was to "transform aspiring orchestral musicians into successful arts professionals". Each year, Symphony Nova's ten fellows attended educational offerings as well as created and performed in numerous concerts. In 2018, Symphony Nova merged with New England Conservatory’s Entrepreneurial Department and became EM Nova Fellows, allowing their mission to continue for many years to come. Other conducting opportunities include a 20-year stint as guest conductor at the Aspen (CO) Music Festival, and he has also guest conducted the Oregon Symphony (OR), Longwood Symphony (MA), Barrington Pops (RI) and at the Round Top Festival (TX), Performing Arts Institute (PA), Eastern Music Festival (NC) and at the Usdan Center for the Performing and Creative Arts (NY). As a conductor of younger students, he has conducted Middle and High school students in all-District orchestras in Massachusetts and New York. In 2002, Mr. Isaacson conducted the National Symphony during the National Conducting Institute with Leonard Slatkin. Mr. Isaacson brings to the podium many years of experience as an orchestral musician. A former trombonist, who began his career at the age of 19 performing as an extra with the Chicago Symphony at Carnegie Hall. He has performed worldwide in concert and on recordings with the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Detroit Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony and the Empire Brass Quintet. During the 2021-2022 school year, he will be on sabbatical from his position at Boston Conservatory at Berklee doing an Advanced Conducting Intensive exploring many facets of the conducting field, especially orchestra, ballet and pops repertoire and ensembles.
Dr. Rufus Jones, Jr.
Dr. Jones has studied with internationally recognized conductors like Louis Lane, Gustav Meier, Kirk Trevor, Donald Portnoy, Timothy Perry, Kenneth Kiesler, and Gary Lewis. Dr. Jones has conducted youth, university and professional orchestras throughout this country and abroad. He has been accepted to prestigious conducting programs like the Tanglewood Music Festival (auditor), the Conductors Institute in South Carolina (fellow) and the Leiston Abbey Conducting Masterclass in Suffolk, England (fellow). His professional career started as Assistant Conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in 1998, under the leadership of then music director, Maestro Kirk Trevor. As a guest conductor Dr. Jones has appeared with the Utah Symphony, Shreveport Symphony, Siena Chamber Orchestra, Detroit Youth Symphony, Omaha Area Youth Symphony, Binghamton Youth Symphony, and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, to name a few. Prior to moving to South Florida, Dr. Jones was Assistant Professor of Music at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. He served as Director of Orchestral Activities. He also taught courses in music theory, music history, and conducting. His academic research has focused on African American classical musicians. His work has been published in an internationally recognized peer-reviewed journal and encyclopedia. Dr. Jones has written extensively on the music of William Grant Still. In 2009, his three volume edition, The Collected Folk Suites of William Grant Still was published and featured at the Inaugural William Grant Still Tribute Conference in Natchez, Mississippi. The principal string players of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra premiered the string quartets from his collection. His latest project, Dean Dixon: Negro at Home, Maestro Abroad is the first ever full-length biography of one of the greatest American conductors of the twentieth century. It was released on April 16, 2015. Alex Ross, music critic for the New Yorker, selected Dr. Jones’ book as one of “nine notable music books of 2015.” In 2018 his paperback edition was released. Dr. Jones is currently working on his second biography, which will chronicle the life of Joseph Henry Douglass (grandson of Frederick Douglass). Dr. Jones is Music Director at Gulliver Preparatory, Lead Conductor of the Miami Music Project Leaders Orchestra, and conductor with the Florida Youth Orchestra. Dr. Cynthia Katsarelis 
CYNTHIA KATSARELIS is Music Director and Conductor of PMC. She has conducted excellent professional, conservatory, youth and training orchestras. As Conducting Assistant with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops, Ms Katsarelis worked with top conductors and guest artists, assisted with recordings for Telarc Records, and worked with James Conlon and the Cincinnati May Festival. Her professional activities include conducting the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Knoxville, Kansas City, Spokane, Flint, Georgetown and the Columbus Women’s Orchestra. She made her international debut leading the Bourgas Philharmonic in Bourgas, Bulgaria. Ms. Katsarelis has served as music director of the Seven Hills Sinfonietta, Antioch Chamber Orchestra, Northern Kentucky Chamber Players, Dearborn Summer Music Festival and Hillman Opera. Critical reviews have praised her work as “a model of precision and spirit.” A pioneer for professional women conductors, Ms. Katsarelis served as Associate Conductor with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (North Carolina) and Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra. There, she was a dynamic force for education, creating and conducting dynamic Young Peoples' Concerts, as well as implementing innovative musical programs for economically challenged children, public school students, and gifted young musicians. Ms. Katsarelis charmed audiences in her appearances leading the Greensboro Symphony Pops and the Greensboro Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker and their parody “the Cracked Nut.” In Colorado, Ms. Katsarelis has guest conducted the Colorado Music Festival in their Young Peoples’ Concerts at Chautauqua in 2012, 2013, and 2014. In 2007, she assisted Michael Christie and the CMF orchestra by conducting the offstage brass in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the Resurrection. For three summers, she conducted the Young Artist Seminar at Rocky Ridge Music Center. Working with the Loveland Opera Theatre, Ms. Katsarelis led performances of Hansel and Gretel, HMS Pinafore, and La Boheme. She has conducted the Longmont Ballet in the Nutcracker with the professional Longmont Ballet Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Katsarelis’ commitment to working with young musicians has taken her to Haiti since the fall of 2004 to guest conduct the Orchestre Philharmonique Sainte Trinité, Les Petits Chanteurs, and teach at the Holy Trinity School of Music in Port-au-Prince. Ms. Katsarelis studied Violin and Conducting at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University, earning her Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees. She was the first undergraduate ever admitted to the conducting program. At the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, she pursued doctoral studies in Orchestral and Opera Conducting. There she served as assistant conductor for both conservatory orchestras and the Opera Theater. She has studied at the Oregon Bach Festival with Helmuth Rilling and also participated in master classes led by Neema Jarvi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kenneth Kiesler, Yoel Levi and Marin Alsop. She began her professional career at the age of 18 as a section violinist in the Florida Orchestra.
Dr. John Koshak
To honor his achievements and contributions, Chapman University recognized John Koshak as Conductor and Professor Emeritus and established the John Koshak Visiting Professorship. The university also established the John Koshak Practice Studio in Oliphant Hall, the newest music building on the Chapman University campus. Critics both at home and abroad have enthusiastically reviewed Maestro Koshak. A Los Angeles Times reviewer wrote: "Carefully regulating each crescendo, Koshak made every climax powerful, dramatic and exhilarating without exhausting his resources at the first fortissimo." In Germany, the Rhein Zeitung reviewer wrote: "both the overall harmonic picture and the artistic discipline can be attributed to the conductor, John Koshak." Of the Brahms Symphony No. 1, the critic described Koshak as a "true Salzburgian." While in Australia, the Sydney Herald music critic wrote: "John Koshak presided over first rate string sounds in the Barber Adagio, and in a Gabrielli Canzona made the brass ring out triumphantly, while Bernstein's Candide Overture hustled along with irresistible panache." About Maestro Koshak's Celebration/Finale Concert with the OCYSO, Timothy Mangan, from the Orange County Register, wrote, "A medley from West Side Story, followed, the orchestra showing a fine sense of its brash and sentimental style, and judging the instrumental balances well, Koshak led them in precise but expressive motions, giving them just what they needed for accuracy's sake without fuss, but also gently shaping the musical flow." Koshak has conducted orchestras in Australia, China and Europe, and has conducted honor, festival and all-state orchestras in California, Nevada, Montana, Washington, and New York. He has served as artist-in-residence and guest conductor at the Sydney (Australia) Conservatorium of Music and was twice invited as guest conductor of the Pan Pacific Music Festival in Australia. Maestro Koshak has toured extensively with his orchestras, including performances in Europe, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and New York. He has conducted in some of the world's greatest concert halls, including the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria, the Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria, the Sydney Opera House, Australia, and New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall. Prior to his appointment to the faculty of Chapman University, he was a public school music educator and conductor in New York, Germany, New Jersey, and California. In Orange County, California, Professor Koshak was recognized for his work in music education when he received the Irene Schoepfle Award for distinguished contributions to Orange County music and by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County which presented him with their Golden Lyre Award for his work with their music education programs and for his artistic leadership of the Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra. Arts Orange County recognized him and the OCYSO with the Arts Educator of the Year Award. With the OCYSO Maestro Koshak has conducted youth concerts in Orange County for over a half million Orange County students. While conducting and teaching in Europe, Professor Koshak received recognition by the United States Government, which granted him the Superior Performance Award for his work in Germany. He and his orchestras have twice received the ASCAP Award from the American Symphony Orchestra League for the performance of American music. At Chapman University, Professor Koshak received the Faculty of the Year Award from the Chapman Alumni Association for his outstanding teaching and conducting. Arts Orange County recognized his music and arts leadership by giving him their prestigious Artistic Visionary Award for lifetime achievement in the arts. He is the author of the conducting book, The Conductor's Role: Preparation for Individual Study, Rehearsal and Performance that is now in its 5th edition. Professor Koshak received his Bachelor of Music degree from The Pennsylvania State University, his Master's degree from Columbia University, and his Conducting Diploma from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He serves as Chair of the Mentoring Committee of the International Conductors Guild. Dr. Wilbur Lin
Lin began his musical education at the age of five. In 2008, the Taiwanese-American conductor founded a student orchestra, the Chamber Philharmonic Taipei, which is now a professional chamber orchestra with an active annual summer season funded by both the Arts Council of Taipei and the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture. Lin briefly worked as assistant conductor at Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Taiwan Symphony orchestras. He regularly works with Chamber Philharmonic Taipei and has conducted the Manchester Camerata, MAV Symphony Orchestra (Budapest), Taipei Philharmonic, Taiwan Symphony, Orquestra de Cadaqués (Spain), Missouri Symphony, and Windsor Symphony (Canada) orchestras. As a pianist, Lin coached and performed with the Indianapolis Opera, IU Opera Theater, and Reimagining Opera for Kids, in addition to his freelance work as a vocal coach and collaborator. A recent graduate of Riccardo Muti's Italian Opera Academy, Lin's recent highlights include conducting Verdi’s Macbeth at Teatro Alighieri (Ravenna, Italy), Die Zauberflöte with the Winter Harbor Festival & Opera (Winter Harbor, Maine), and an appearance with Canada's Windsor Symphony Orchestra, guest conducting El Salvador's National Youth Orchestra, and the conclusion of Chamber Philharmonic Taipei's seventh concert in its Bach Cantata Series. Lin held the position of Lord Rhodes Scholar from 2013 to 2014, was a two-time recipient of Mortimer Furber Prize for Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), and holds a doctoral degree in orchestral conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Lin has studied with Arthur Fagen and David Effron at Jacobs, Clark Rundell and Mark Heron at the RNCM, and Apo Hsu at National Taiwan Normal University. He has also received conducting coaching with Riccardo Muti, Sir Mark Elder, Vasily Petrenko, Juanjo Mena, Jac van Steen, Mark Stringer, Paul McCreesh, and Helmuth Rilling.
Dr. Everett McCorvey
Maestro Everett McCorvey is in his 6th Season as the Artistic Director of the National Chorale and Orchestra at Lincoln Center in New York City. The National Chorale, in its 52nd Season, is known for concerts featuring the major titans of the choral repertory as well as New York’s popular Messiah Sing-In at Lincoln Center which just celebrated 52 years. Maestro McCorvey is also the Founder and Music Director of the American Spiritual Ensemble celebrating 25 years of touring throughout the world celebrating the American Negro Spiritual. Recent performances of Maestro McCorvey include conducting the North Czech Philharmonic in a New Year’s Eve concert of the Dvorak “New World” Symphony in Smetana Hall in Prague, Czech Republic. And the Taormina Music Festival Orchestra in a concert of Opera Scenes in Taormina, Italy. Future conducting stents will include conducting the Euro Sinfonietta Vienna Orchestra in a concert of the Beethoven 1st Symphony at Haydn Hall in Vienna in August of 2020 and conducting the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic at the famed Musikverin in Vienna in November of 2020. A Scholar, Educator and Impresario, Maestro McCorvey is also a Music Professor at the University of Kentucky where he holds an Endowed Chair in Opera Studies and is Director of the University of Kentucky Opera Program, a program that is recognized by the Richard Tucker Foundation as one of the top 20 Recommended Opera Training Programs in the country. Maestro McCorvey was recently chosen as the 2020 recipient for the Southeastern Athletic Conference Faculty Achievement Award for the University of Kentucky and was the 2018 recipient of the University of Kentucky Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement Award, one of the highest awards presented by the University. The award promotes education and creative thought. National PBS stations are currently running two concerts produced by Maestro McCorvey throughout the country during the 2019-2020 season. One featuring the American Spiritual Ensemble and a PBS special featuring another one of Maestro McCorvey’s creations, a Broadway Salute entitled “It’s a Grand Night for Singing!” In September of 2010, Dr. McCorvey served as the Executive Producer of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Alltech 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games held in Lexington, Kentucky. The Opening Ceremony was broadcasted on NBC Sports and was viewed by over 500 million people worldwide. The Alltech 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games was the largest equestrian event to ever be held in the United States. www.everettmccorvey.com
Dr. Jon C. Mitchell
Jon Ceander Mitchell holds the title Professor Emeritus of Music at University of Massachusetts Boston, where he served as Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra and Coordinator of Music Education for nearly a quarter of a century. A well-known clinician on Gustav Holst, Ludwig van Beethoven and Anton Rubinstein, he has over one hundred publications, including seven books of which he is sole author and another where he is co-author. He has guest conducted throughout Europe and the United States and has recorded ten CDs with professional orchestras. Among these are the Anton Rubinstein piano concertos with pianist Grigorios Zamparas, the first pianist/conductor team to record all five, and his recording of his own realization of the orchestral score to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in E flat, WoO4. He was editor of the CODA (College Orchestra Directors Association) Journal for over a decade and is the 2019 recipient of the CODA Lifetime Achievement Award. He also serves on the boards of IGEB (International Society for the promotion and Investigation of Wind Music) and the International Conductors Guild. His hobbies include composing, arranging and writing. Now You Can Take Off Your Clothes: Vignettes of an American Conductor Lost in Translation (Whitman, MA: Riverhaven Press) his latest book, along with his burgeoning coaster collection, is the result of over fifty trips to Europe. He and his wife Ester live in the Greater Boston metropolitan area.
Dr. Ian Passmore
With adventurous musicality and an infectious stage presence, Ian Passmore leads a rich career as an orchestra conductor and pedagogue. Hailed as “a rising young conductor” with “a palpable enjoyment of the music’s dramatic ebb and flow,” his “powerful” interpretations of the standard repertoire harken back to a bygone generation of conductors. Ian is now based in North Carolina with his fiancée Dianna Fiore and their two dachshunds, Beethoven and Charlie. When not on the podium, Ian can be found enjoying local restaurants and craft beer, cooking, traveling, road biking, and CrossFit. Learn more at ianconducts.com.
Mr. Charles Prince
American conductor, Charles Prince, studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He attended the Boston Symphony Orchestra's annual Tanglewood Music Festival in 1988 and 1989, taking master classes with Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier, and Kurt Sanderling. Other important teachers who got him started included Robert Page (Cleveland Orchestra) and Jorma Panula (Helsinki), one of the foremost conducting teachers in Europe. Today Charles Prince is a regular guest conductor of orchestras such as the Oregon Sympony Orchestra, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Kuopi Symphony in Finland, as well as the Canadian Brass with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. He was the musical director of the Bernstein Gala in PA Majestic Theatre, presented by Jamie Bernstein, and the Tony-Award production of James Joyce and Shaun Daveys' “The Dead” on Broadway, in Los Angeles and Washington. From 1996 to 2003, Charles Prince was Associate Conductor of the New York Pops. In this position, he brought several world-premiers of contemporary american composers to the stage of New York's Carnegie Hall. In Moscow, he conducted the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, playing Jan Sibelius' Symphony No. 4, Richard Strauss's “Till Eulenspiegel” and Claude Debussy's “La Mer.” Because of his european ancestry, Prince harbors a preference for Viennese classical music as well as the Viennese operetta. Thus, he returned often to Europe where he conducted the WDR Orchestra (Cologne and Essen, Germany), the Munich “Rundfunkorchester” and “Symphoniker,” the Philharmonic Orchestra of Sofia (Bulgaria), the Festival Orchestra in Verbier (Switzerland), and the Kärtner Symphonieorchestrer (Carinthia, Austria). In tribute to his father, Broadway director Hal Prince, Charles conducted “A Gala Concert for Hal Prince” with the Munich Radio Orchestra and an international ensemble of singers at the Munich Philharmonic in Gasteig, which was broadcast live over Bavarian radio and television, as well as recorded for a double-CD by First Night Records, London. Charles Prince was music director of Wiener Operettensommer in Vienna, Austria, and is the music director of the Plainfield Symphony Orchestra in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Mr. Lucas Richman
GRAMMY award-winning conductor Lucas Richman has served as Music Director for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra since 2010 and held the position as Music Director for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2015. Over the course of nearly four decades on the podium, he has garnered an international reputation for his graceful musical leadership in a diverse field of media. In concert halls, orchestral pits and recording studios around the world, Richman earns rave reviews for his artful collaborations with artists in both the classical and commercial music arenas. He has appeared as guest conductor with numerous orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the SWR Radio Orchestra of Kaiserslautern, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional and the Zagreb Philharmonic. Guest conducting highlights for the 2018-19 season include programs with the Nashville Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, the Stamford Symphony, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israel Camerata Orchestra Jerusalem, as well as summer festival performances with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In recent years, he has led performances with notable soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Garrick Ohlsson, Lang Lang, Midori, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Frank Peter Zimmerman, Mark O’Connor, Andre Watts, Frederica von Stade and Radu Lupu. Mr. Richman has also conducted for a panoply of commercial artists that includes James Taylor, Michael Jackson, Pat Boone, Michael Feinstein, Gloria Estefan, Megan Hilty, Matthew Morrison, George Benson, Robert Goulet, Anne Murray, the Smothers Brothers, Martin Short, Tony Randall, Victor Borge and Brian Wilson. Mr. Richman’s numerous collaborations with film composers as their conductor has yielded recorded scores for such films as the Academy Award-nominated The Village (with violinist, Hilary Hahn), As Good As It Gets, Face/Off, Se7en, Breakdown, The Manchurian Candidate, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl and Flatliners; in 2010, John Williams invited him to lead the three-month national summer tour of Star Wars in Concert. Recent recordings he has led from the podium include Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project (a project from within the film music community that has generated over $200K in donations), Noel Paul Stookey’s recent solo release One & Many, and Marvin Hamlisch’s final score, written for the Emmy Award-winning HBO movie, Behind the Candelabra. Also an accomplished composer, Mr. Richman has had his music performed by over two hundred orchestras across the United States including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops and the symphonies of Detroit, Atlanta, New Jersey and Houston. He has fulfilled commissions for numerous organizations including the Pittsburgh Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Bangor Symphony, Johnstown Symphony, the Debussy Trio, the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the Organ Artists Series of Pittsburgh. His “Symphony: This Will Be Our Reply” was premiered to critical acclaim by a consortium of orchestras in 2019, including the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra (TN), the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra (MN) and the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony (CA). Upcoming commissions include The Warming Sea for the Maine Science Festival/Bangor Symphony Orchestra (prem. 3/22/20) and Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra for the Atlanta Musicians Orchestra (prem. 10/16/20). September, 2015, brought the vaunted Albany Records release of a new CD, IN TRUTH Lucas Richman, which features the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performing his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra: In Truth (Jeffrey Biegel, piano), in addition to his Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra: The Clearing (Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida, oboe) and Three Pieces for Cello and Orchestra (Inbal Segev, cello). In November, 2009, as the result of an NEA commission, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra premiered his Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, a setting of poetry by Children’s Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky, which Jahja Ling and the SDSO recorded for release in December, 2011. Recordings of Richman’s music also include those featuring Giora Feidman (Variations for Clarinet and Cello), the Tiroler Kammerorchester InnStrumenti of Innsbruck (The Seven Circles of Life) and members of the Pittsburgh Symphony (Day is Done), the latter of which is an album of original and traditional lullabies composed and arranged by Mr. Richman as an aid for parents wishing to introduce their children to the joys of music. The CD, a companion children’s book and a listing of Mr. Richman’s compositions can be found through LeDor Group, Inc. at www.ledorgroup.com. More recent commissions have been released on recordings by the Debussy Trio and cellist D. Scot Williams. Mr. Richman is a respected leader in the field of planning and conducting concerts for young people and his works written specifically for children have been featured in young people’s concerts presented by numerous orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Antonio Symphony. Taking children’s concert programming and musical education to new heights for the next generation, Mr. Richman is responsible for the creation of an animated guide to classical music, which is featured in full symphonic concerts. The character, Picardy Penguin®, has appeared with orchestras throughout the United States, including the symphonies of Knoxville, Bangor, Syracuse and Rochester. Mr. Richman earned a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Southern California as a student of Daniel Lewis after receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA in violin performance. He studied conducting privately with Fritz Zweig and Victor Yampolsky, and was also selected as a conducting fellow in master classes with Pierre Boulez, André Previn, Herbert Blomstedt and Kurt Sanderling. In 1988, he was one of four international conductors honored by Leonard Bernstein to share the maestro’s podium for concerts with the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra presented in London, Moscow and selected cities in Germany. Mr. Richman went on to serve as the Assistant Conductor for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra from 1988-1991, and then served as Assistant and Resident Conductor for Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra between 1998-2004. Mr. Richman gives back regularly to the community and future generations of musicians through his teaching, board leadership and his work in partnering musical ensembles with health care facilities in order to extend the healing power of music. Mr. Richman has served on the faculty of the UCLA Music and Theatre Departments, Stephen Wise Music Academy, Brandeis-Bardin Institute, American Center for Music Theatre and Pittsburgh’s City Music Center among others. Mr. Richman co-founded the BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) Conducting for the Film Composer Workshop, which he has led annually since 1997, teaching conducting to over 170 of the leading film and television composers of this generation. Since 2000, he has been an integral faculty member and co-founder of “Notes from the Heart,” an annual music camp produced by the Woodlands Foundation for young people with medical disabilities, completing a one-act musical in collaboration with Sara Pyszka, “One Single Voice,” which serves to educate members of the able-bodied community how to better interact with members of the disabled community. In 2002, Pittsburgh’s Race for the Cure commissioned him to write We Share a Bond, a song which was subsequently recorded by the Knoxville Symphony and, to this day, continues to raise money for breast cancer awareness. He has also served on the board of numerous community organizations, including the Joy of Music School, The Conductors Guild, Young Musicians Foundation and the Knoxville Arts and Culture Alliance. As founders of a nationally-respected Music and Wellness program, Mr. Richman and the Knoxville Symphony were the recipients of the 2006 Bank of America Award for Excellence in Orchestra Education, as well as a multi-year grant from the Getty Foundation. In 2007, BMI presented him with their Classic Contribution Award at the annual BMI Film and Television Awards Gala. He was also named Composer of the Year by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association in 2005. Mr. Richman received a GRAMMY Award (2011) in the category of Best Classical Crossover Album for having conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Christopher Tin’s classical/world fusion album, Calling All Dawns.
Dr. Robert Whalen
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Dr. Rufus Jones Jr.
JOHN KOSHAK
Recently appointed assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony, Wilbur Lin started his first season as the assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras, in addition to continuing his work as the artistic director of the summer seasons of the Chamber Philharmonic Taipei.
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