International Conductors Guild
Ms. Ida Angland
Ida Angland is the Artistic Director for Gateway Classical Music Society and Gateway Classical Music Society of New York and the Music Director and Conductor of the Gateway Orchestra, a professional orchestra of 70-plus musicians comprising veteran and freelance professionals of diverse ages and ethnicities. She has held these positions from 2004 to the present. She had led the Gateway Orchestra’s performances of symphonic and operatic masterworks that have included opportunities for outstanding instrumental and vocal soloists from all over the world to perform major concerti and complete operatic roles with the orchestra. Regional reviews have characterized her as having “inner genius,” “flair,” “idealism,” and “grit,” and the Gateway Orchestra’s performances as “fantastic,” “thrilling,” “compelling,” “a revelation,” “unforgettable,” and “amazing.” (Brooklyn Eagle, Italian Voice, Greenwich Time, Stamford Advocate, Italian Citizen and other regional publications). Gateway Classical Music Society’s objectives are to promote classical music through live performances of major works and provide opportunities for outstanding soloists. This has been accomplished through its Great Works of Art performances in New York City and the Tri-State area (NY, CT and NJ). Gateway’s performances reach out to diverse neighborhoods that include underserved areas. During the pandemic, Ida Angland has virtually premiered, through Gateway, several works by living composers that include Daunting is the Woman, an anthem and lyrics she composed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the nineteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution (women’s right to vote). Daunting was virtually premiered due to the pandemic. Prior to her involvement with Gateway, Maestro Angland assistant-conducted for seven years with the New York Grand Opera for performances of grand opera and symphonic works in Central Park and Carnegie Hall. She began her music training as a pianist and received her formative music training at the North Carolina School of the Arts. She performed leading and subordinate roles as a soprano in regional opera companies and as a soloist in oratorios. Her conducting mentor was the late Vincent LaSelva, with whom she studied orchestral conducting at The Juilliard School and with whom she apprenticed at the New York Grand Opera prior to assistant-conducting there. All virtual premieres and details of programs performed by the Gateway Orchestra, can be found on the website: www.gatewayclassical.org. 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.
Mr. David Cho
Born in Seoul, Korea, David immigrated to the United States in 1985. David received a variety of music lessons during his childhood in Palos Verdes, California before focusing his energy exclusively on the piano. He later attended Oberlin College and Conservatory where he received his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance.
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. Maria Mercedes Diaz Garcia
Dr. Mercedes Diaz Garcia is the Music Director and founder of 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 conducted orchestras in North America, South America and Europe, and has participated in the festivals MIMO in Sao Paulo (Brazil), National Music Festival (USA), Pacific Region International Music Academy (Canada),and the International Conductors Festival (Ukraine). Ms. Diaz Garcia has participated in prestigious masterclasses with Edo de Waart, Neeme Jarvi, Kenneth Kiesler, and Paavo Jarvi, among others. In 2017 and 2018 she was invited as artist-in-residence/conductor at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity (Canada) to work with the Ensemble Evolution and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and was invited to return for the 2018 session. Dr. Diaz Garcia is a strong advocate for new music, commissioning new works and having performed many premieres. She has performed operas by Amy Beth Kirsten and Kaija Saariaho in addition to standard repertory including Puccini’s La Boheme and Verdi’s La Traviata among others. With PRAECEPTA —an organization of young American composers— she has been conductor for the past three seasons of their yearly micro-operas performances featuring emerging composers. For the past three seasons she has been conductor in the annual New Music Festival organized by the Mid American Centre for Contemporary Music. In addition to opera and orchestral works she has performed ballet and wind ensemble repertoire. 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 the 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. She has also taught a number of other courses at BGSU, including Aural Training and Music Appreciation. Dr. Maria Mercedes Diaz Garcia served as Conducting Fellow/Assistant Conductor of Orchestras 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.
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.
Dr. 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.
Mr. Joseph Joubert Joseph Joubert is a hugely versatile musician whose wide-ranging accomplishments and talent as a pianist, arranger, orchestrator, Broadway conductor, and music director have taken him around the world. Most recently Mr. Joubert was musical director and orchestrator for “Harriet Tubman” star Cynthia Erivo in three sold out Tokyo performances. Next season Mr. Joubert will be musical supervisor for “Blue” at the Apollo directed by Phylicia Rashad starring Lynn Whitfield and Leslie Ugams. Also next year Roundabout Theatre Company is presenting “Caroline, or Change” using orchestrations by Mr. Joubert. Last summer Mr. Joubert was orchestrator with Danny Troob for Alan Menken’s “Hercules” presented by PublicWorks for Disney. Mr. Joubert was music supervisor and orchestrator for Classic Stage Company’s “Carmen Jones” starring Anika Noni Rose to rave reviews. His Broadway orchestration credits include: “The Color Purple”(Drama Desk Nomination), “Disaster”, “Violet”(Drama Desk Nomination), “Leap of Faith”, and “Caroline or Change”. He was Musical Director for Berry Gordy’s “Motown The Musical “and was assistant conductor for Nice Work If You Can Get It and Billy Elliot. Mr. Joubert was guest conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Christmas Concert featuring Take 6. Mr. Joubert was Musical Director, Arranger, and Pianist for Norm Lewis’s American Songbook, the PBS Live from Lincoln Center special. Mr. Joubert was orchestrator/musical supervisor and conductor for the PBS special “Three Mo’Tenors” and production of “Three Mo Divas”. Mr. Joubert was an orchestrator for the TV show “Smash” and the film “Night’s In Rodanthe”. He received a grammy nomination for Best Arrangement Acompanying A Vocal for the Broadway Inspirational Voices “Great Joy”. As a record producer and arranger/orchestrator he has worked with Ashford and Simpson, Diana Ross, George Benson, Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, Cissy Houston, Jennifer Holliday, Dionne Warwick, Luther Vandross, Norm Lewis and Diane Reeves. His orchestrations are used by symphonies across the USA including The New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia orchestras. He appeared in the Metropolitan Opera’s revival of Porgy and Bess as the piano-player Jasbo Brown. Critics have hailed Mr. Joubert’s “sensitive and supportive” performances as an accompanist and the “uncommon tonal beauty” of his playing. He has collaborated with such classical singers as Denyce Graves, Esther Hinds, Harolyn Blackwell, Florence Quivar, Simon Estes, and Hilda Harris, and performed with Kathleen Battle at the White House for President Bill Clinton as well as Carnegie Hall. Mr. Joubert is at home arranging and performing in any style from classical to pop, gospel to Broadway, spiritual to R & B. He has reinterpreted classic hymns on his solo piano CD Total Praise and most recent solo piano CD A Mighty Fortress Is Our God: The Joubert Experience released by GIA Publications. His published arrangements are performed all over the world. As Musical Director for Judy Collins for five years he performed with the London Symphony and many of the major American orchestras. Born in New York City, the son of a Baptist minister, he began playing the piano at the age of eight and by age sixteen had made his Town Hall debut with full orchestra. He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Dora Zaslavsky, and won the nationwide piano competition of the National Association of Negro Musicians in 1980. Here’s a link to Mr. Joubert’s extensive recording catalogue. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/joseph-joubert-mn0000784075/credits
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. 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
Chicago native JON CEANDER MITCHELL conducts the Chamber Orchestra at University of Massachusetts Boston, where he is Professor of Music. He also conducts the Boston Neo-politan Chamber Orchestra. Prior to his 1992 arrival in Boston, he held full-time music faculty positions at University of Georgia, Carnegie Mellon University, and Hanover College. He also served as music director of the North Pittsburgh Civic Symphony. In recent years he has done a significant amount of guest conducting with professional and college orchestras throughout Europe and the United States. His research covers many areas, but is centered mostly on Holst and Beethoven. He has over seventy publications, with five published books including The Braunschweig Scores: Felix Weingartner and Erich Leinsdorf on Beethoven’s First Four Symphonies, A Comprehensive Biography of Composer Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Wind Works, and From Kneller Hall to Hammersmith: The Band Works of Gustav Holst. His latest “book” is a scholarly edition and realization of the orchestration of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in E Flat, WoO4. He is also editor of the CODA (College orchestra Directors Association) Journal. He has conducted six CDs with professional orchestras for Centaur Records and Vienna Music Masters and is in the latter stages of recording the cycle of Anton Rubinstein’s piano concertos with pianist Grigorios Zamparas for Centaur.
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. Lucas Richman
LUCAS RICHMAN has served as Music Director for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra since 2010 and recently completed a 12-year tenure as Music Director for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra from 2003-2015. 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. He has appeared as guest conductor with numerous orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, 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 and the Zagreb Philharmonic. 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, Anne Murray, the Smothers Brothers, Martin Short, Tony Randall and Victor Borge. 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 Candidateand Kit Kittredge: An American Girl; 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. Mr. Richman served as Assistant and Resident Conductor for Mariss Jansons and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra between 1998-2004 and, from 1988-1991, he was the Assistant Conductor for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. 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. 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. He has fulfilled commissions for numerous organizations including the Pittsburgh Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Johnstown Symphony, the Debussy Trio, the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the Organ Artists Series of Pittsburgh. September, 2015, brought the now critically-acclaimed 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).
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. Recordings of Richman’s music 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.
Dr. Julie Sorensen
![]() DR. JULIE SORENSEN comes to ISU from Lubbock, Texas, where she earned her Ph.D. in Fine Arts with a specialty in Orchestral Conducting from Texas Tech University. While in Lubbock, Sorensen served as the assistant conductor for the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra where she conducted for family, children's, and holiday concerts. She has also served as the assistant director for symphonies at Texas Tech University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Sorensen holds a B.A. in Music and Flute Performance from the University of Wyoming and an M.M. in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln In the fall of 2011, Sorensen joined the music faculty at Idaho State University as an Assistant Lecturer in Music Theory, Aural Skills, Music Appreciation and History. In the fall of 2015, Sorensen became the applied instructor of flute at ISU, where she teaches a strong studio of flutists and is the artistic director of the ISU flute choir. Sorensen is also an adjudicator for both flute and orchestra in and around southeast Idaho. She actively participates in the ISU marching band camps as well as the Summer Institute for Piano and Strings. As a chamber and orchestral musician, Sorensen performs with the City Creek Winds faculty wind quintet and served as the principal flute for the Idaho State-Civic Symphony. While at ISU, Sorensen has also been the conductor for the ISU productions of Into the Woods and Double Blind Sided. In 2012, she organized and directed the first full student chamber symphony orchestra at ISU. In 2016, Sorensen was appointed as the artistic director and conductor for the Idaho State-Civic Symphony Youth Orchestra, a position which she still holds. For the 2017-18 season, she served as the interim conductor for the Idaho State-Civic Symphony. After a nationwide search, she was selected as the permanent artistic director and conductor of the Idaho State-Civic Symphony beginning with the 2018-19 season.
Robert Whalen
Conductor Robert Whalen serves on the Conducting Staff at Opera Philadelphia, and will prepare productions of The Love for Three Oranges, Semele, Madama Butterfly, and Verdi’s Requiem in the 2019-2020 Season. Robert is Music Director of SoundLAB, a cutting-edge contemporary ensemble in Philadelphia. SoundLAB was the resident ensemble at the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2018 Barnes/Stokowski Festival, and was born out of the Barnes Ensemble, a creative laboratory for contemporary music at the Barnes Foundation, where Whalen was Associate Curator for Music. Whalen was personally selected by Lorin Maazel to serve as his Conducting Fellow at the Castleton Festival and has worked as Assistant Conductor of the WDR Funkhausorchester in Cologne, Germany. Whalen was on faculty at the University of Chicago as the Director of the Chamber Orchestra and as Music Director of the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company of Chicago. He also founded and led the Chicago-based new music ensemble Les espaces acoustiques. As Conductor of the Contemporary Music Workshop at the University of Minnesota, Whalen led numerous regional and world premieres and conducted contemporary masterworks including Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil and Helmut Lachenmann’s Zwei gefühle…Musik mit Leonardo. Whalen is an active member of the Board of Directors for the Conductors Guild. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Whalen has collaborated with many leading composers, including the late Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky and Grammy-winning composer Augusta Read Thomas. A native of New York, Whalen earned a BA cum laude from Cornell University, a master’s degree from the Bard College Conservatory of Music, a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, and pursued post-graduate study at the Curtis Institute of Music.
International Conductors Guild
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