Diane Wittry
Conductor
Internationally acclaimed conductor, DIANE WITTRY, maintains a dual career as an esteemed music director and guest conductor throughout the world. Recently named as one of the “Top 30 Professional Musicians” by Musical America Worldwide, and as the “Outstanding Alumnus of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, Diane Wittry brings a proven track record regarding her ability to inspire musicians and to build an orchestra artistically and organizationally.
A frequent guest conductor of professional orchestras across the country, Diane Wittry has conducted orchestras in 11 countries throughout Europe and Asia, including China, Poland, Canada, Bosnia, Russia, Slovakia, Japan, Italy, as well as her regularly scheduled concerts with orchestras in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
In the United States, Diane Wittry has led performances by the symphony orchestras of Milwaukee, San Diego, Houston, and Santa Barbara, as well as The Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, among others; while her international engagements include concerts with the Sarajevo Philharmonic in Bosnia, the Zabrze Philharmonic in Poland, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Russia’s Maikop and Sochi symphony orchestras, Slovakia’s State Orchestra-Kosice, Italy’s Sinfonia Dell’Arte di Firenze, Canada’s Niagara Symphony, and Japan’s Osaka Symphony Orchestra. She has also conducted at the music festivals of Ojai (CA), Penn’s Woods (PA), and I-Park (CT).
As the Music Director of the Allentown Symphony, PA , a professional orchestra with a 3.5 million budget that performs about 24 concerts a year, Diane Wittry has established a reputation for her creative programming and innovative approach to concert formats. The Stamford Advocate, CT, described Diane Wittry as “a conductor who specializes in finding creative ways to make the music fresh, accessible, and exciting.” She has been a tireless advocate for the development of extensive educational programs and is very involved with the Allentown Symphony’s El Sistema Program for underprivileged children.
Diane Wittry is also the Music Director and Conductor of the Garden State Philharmonic, NJ, a professional orchestra comprised of New York and New Jersey based musicians that performs regularly at the New Jersey Shore. The GSP also supports a community chorus, a youth chorus, and a three-tier Youth Orchestra program.
Other orchestras that Diane Wittry has been the Music Director and Conductor of include the Norwalk Symphony (CT), the Ridgewood Symphony, (NJ), the Southern California Sinfonia (CA), the Lamar Chamber Orchestra, and the Symphony of Southeast Texas, (Beaumont, TX), where her work garnered the League of American Orchestra’s Helen M Thompson Award.
Diane Wittry began her conducting studies with Daniel Lewis at the University of Southern California, from which she graduated with honors. While still a student, she was the recipient of a conducting fellowship from the Aspen Music Festival. Her other teachers and mentors include Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Gustav Meier and Jorge Mester; and she worked with the renowned Russian conductor Leonid Korchmar of the Kirov Opera, and Jorma Panula from Finland.
As a conducting teacher, Diane Wittry, has been a guest lecturer at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University Steinhardt School of Music, as well as other Universities and Colleges. She has taught graduate level orchestral conducting at Rutgers University (NJ); and she was a faculty member at Lamar University (Beaumont, TX,) and a lecturer at the University of Southern California – Thornton School of Music where she taught conducting courses. In addition to her professional conducting, Diane Wittry is sought after as a clinician, adjudicator, and conductor for All-State Orchestras. More recently, she conducted the Nevada and Oregon All-State Orchestras, and she was the featured Masterclass Conducting Teacher at the national College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA) conference.
Diane Wittry has taught national and international conducting courses and workshops through the International Conductors Institute, the Czech Republic International Conducting Workshop, the South Carolina Conductor’s Institute, the New York Conducting Institute, the Pacific Northwest Conducting Institute, the Texas Conductor’s Workshop, and the Beyond the Baton Conducting Seminars and Workshops. She has served as a National Conducting Mentor for regional music directors in their first or second year through the League of American Orchestras, as well as being a frequent faculty member for the League’s National Leadership Academy. She is also a part of the National Conducting Mentoring Committee through the Conductors Guild and a guest speaker at national conferences.
An award winning author and scholar, her book, “Beyond the Baton”, (Oxford University Press, 2007) (www.BeyondtheBaton.com) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and has become a standard, both nationally and internationally, in the field. Her most recent book “Baton Basics – Communicating Music Through Gestures” (Oxford University Press, Dec.2014) is being used by conducting classes across the country.
Over the years, Diane Wittry has received many honors and awards, including the American Symphony Orchestra League’s national Helen M. Thompson Award for outstanding artistic leadership of a regional orchestra. She has been the subject of profiles in The New York Times and Newsweek. Ms. Wittry received an Outstanding Achievement Award, Allentown, PA, the Women of Excellence Award in Beaumont, Texas, the Arts Ovation Award in Music and the Woman of Distinction Award from Allentown, PA., and she is only the third American to be named – in recognition of her leadership in the arts and humanities – the recipient of the prestigious Fiorino Doro Award from the City of Vinci, Italy.
Recently, Diane Wittry has also established a reputation as a composer. Her orchestral piece, “Mist” was premiered by the Allentown Symphony Orchestra and has had many performances and radio broadcasts nationally and internationally. It is available for streaming at Amazon.com in a recording by the Slovak State Philharmonic . Her other compositions: Lamentoso, after the rain, Concerto for Home-made Instruments, Ode to Joy Fanfare, and Leaves, have all received premieres, excellent reviews, and multiple performances. Her music is published by the Theodore Presser Company, and Subito Music.
Diane Wittry has been a juror for the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers’ (ASCAP) Annual Rudolf Nissim Composer’s Competition in New York, an adjudicator for new compositions for the artist residency program at I-Park in Connecticut, and she has also served as a music panelist for National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC.
