Michael Avagliano has served as music director of the Central Jersey Symphony since 2008. He has worked as a cover conductor for the Lafayette Symphony and the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland. Previously, Mr. Avagliano led the Manalapan Symphony as music director for four seasons. He has also appeared as guest conductor with the Plainfield Symphony and the Metropolitan Orchestra of New Jersey.

Reuben Blundell was first inspired by the sound of an orchestra at the age of 10, hearing performances of his mother, a horn player in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia. Reuben began formal conducting studies in 2006, pursuing a DMA at the Eastman School of Music with Professor Neil Varon. Immediately following his residency, Reuben Blundell began a position at Millersville University in PA, and has directed the Hunter Symphony, at Hunter College in Manhattan’s Upper East Side since August 2009.

Michelle Denton

Chi Chung Ho

Jeffrey Klefstad, a North Dakota native, received his M.M. degree in Orchestral Conducting from James Madison University in 2009; and is now a M.A. candidate in Music Education at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. For Mr. Klefstad, the “Beyond the Baton” seminar covered topics and answered questions that one cannot learn in school and that these elements will be vital for his future success in this profession.

Jonathan Palmer Lakeland is a conductor working in the New York area. He studies conducting with David Gilbert, and serves as the assistant conductor of the Westminster Orchestra in Princeton, NJ. Mr. Lakeland also serves as an accompanist at Westminster Choir College, playing for James Jordan and many other conductors.

Daniel S. Lee is currently the artistic director of the Sebastian Chamber Players, music director of the Albano Ballet, and  the choir director of the New Haven Korean Church.  As a conductor he had been coached by Marin Alsop, Charles Dutoit, Harold Farberman, Gustav Meier, and Otto-Werner Mueller. He is currently working towards his Doctor of Musical Arts degree as a student of Theodore Arm at the University of Connecticut, where he is a graduate teaching assistant.

Dr. Mark Perlman conducts the Willamette Falls Symphony (Oregon City, OR) and is Professor of Philosophy at Western Oregon University, and plays bass in the Salem Chamber Orchestra. He has written books and articles in philosophy, as well as conducted orchestras in Oregon, Ohio, Arizona and California, as well as internationally in Russia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Enrico Sartori is currently the principal conductor and artistic director of Musica d’Insieme, Stony Brook’s premiere string ensemble, in Long Island (New York). He is frequently invited as a guest conductor of many professional and youth orchestras in Europe and in the U. S. Also an accomplished flutist and winner of many international competitions, he maintains an intense schedule as a soloist in Europe and the U.S.

Marlene Tavares is from Portugal and is finishing a masters degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Aveiro.  She is the conductor of the Choir of Guetim, Espinho.  Marlene is also studying Orchestral Conducting.  Her major instrument is Piano and she studied with Filipe Pino Ribeiro at the Catholic University of Oporto.

Channing Yu is Music Director of the Mercury Orchestra in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was recently named the national winner of the 2010 American Prize in Orchestral Conducting in the community orchestra division. He has also served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Lowell House Opera, the oldest opera company in New England, where he conducted over thirty fully staged performances with orchestra. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra (PA) and the opera orchestra of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.