Conductor Roster and Bios

Craig Hella Johnson

Renowned as one of the most influential voices in choral conducting in the United States, Craig Hella Johnson brings a depth of knowledge, artistic sensitivity and imagination to his programs. Founder and Artistic Director of the Grammy Award-Nominated choral ensemble Conspirare, Johnson has assembled some of the finest singers in the country to create a world class, award-winning ensemble committed to creating dynamic choral art.

In addition to his work with Conspirare, Johnson also serves as the Music Director Laureate and Conductor of the Victoria Bach Festival, an annual event that draws musicians and critical praise from around the country. Of Johnson’s performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mike Greenberg of the San Antonio Express-News wrote: “Through all the amazing ebbs and flows of dynamics, the radiant balances, the seamless connection of episodes, the theatrically astute tempo relations, the unified structural arc, the music shone forth with organic naturalness. Nothing sounded fussed over. Everything just sounded right.”

Johnson served as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Texas in Austin from 1990 to 2001, leading the graduate program in conducting. He was Artistic Director of San Francisco-based Chanticleer from 1998-1999 and has served as guest conductor with the Austin Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, and the Berkshire Choral Festival. In 2008, Johnson was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame.

A composer and arranger, Johnson is an editor with G. Schirmer Publishing and is working on a choral series featuring specially selected composers, as well as some of his original compositions and arrangements. His works are also published by Alliance Music Publications.

A native of Minnesota, Johnson studied at St. Olaf College, the Juilliard School, and the University of Illinois and earned his doctorate at Yale University. As the recipient of a National Arts Fellowship, Johnson studied with Helmuth Rilling at the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart, Germany.

Murry Sidlin

Murry Sidlin is credited with having one of the most diverse musical careers in America today. After eight years as the Oregon Symphony’s resident conductor — during which he conducted hundreds of classical, pops, youth, special event, tour and community concerts — he became dean of the music school at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., in August 2002.

In keeping with his philosophy of students “evolving as artists” to meet the demands of the ever “evolving” musical profession in America, he has pledged to develop a training school at CUA for the young 21st century professional that will emphasize communicating the musical arts in new ways, with innovative thought and methods for new audiences.

Sidlin’s creation, Defiant Requiem-Verdi at Terezin, has received international recognition. The conductor created the “Illuminations” series (originally called “Nerve Endings”) while at the Oregon Symphony. For eight years, the innovative concerts, designed to attract new audiences and to expand the traditional role of the symphony orchestra, were the most written about, controversial and consistently well-attended events in the symphony’s history.

Sidlin last year completed his 24th summer at the Aspen Music Festival where, as artist/teacher, he serves with music director David Zinman as the associate director and program coordinator of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, a school within a school.

A sought after lecturer as an arts philosopher, he has given major addresses three times at American Symphony Orchestra League national conferences. He also has lectured on music education and gifted children at 12 state education conferences and has spoken at the White House Forum on Arts Education. Appointed by presidents Ford and Carter to serve on the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, he was voted national educator of the year in 1997 by the National Association of Independent Schools of Music. He was the host/conductor/principal writer of “Music Is ...”, a 10-part television series about music for children that was shown for five years on the PBS network.

His guest conducting has taken him to the following orchestras: Boston Pops, Florida Philharmonic, St Louis, Minnesota, Seattle, Houston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Texas (symphony and opera), Utah, Colorado, Quebec, Madrid, I Solisti Veneti, Vancouver, Edmonton, Monte Carlo, Jerusalem, Gavleborg (Sweden), Maastricht (Netherlands) and many others.

He has conducted hundreds of opera performances, including multiple performances of several chamber operas at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Conn. Among these is Sidlin's own chamber transcription of Aaron Copland's The Tender Land, which he recorded on Koch CDs with the Third Angle New Music Ensemble, and a suite that he arranged from the opera on a separate CD with Copland's famed Appalachian Spring, also with Third Angle.

Sidlin began his career as an assistant conductor of the Baltimore Symphony under Sergiu Comissiona, and then became resident conductor of the National Symphony under Antal Dorati. He next moved to music directorships with the New Haven Symphony for 12 years, and the Tulsa Philharmonic and Long Beach (Calif.) orchestras. His principal teachers were famed pedagogues Leon Barzin, in New York and Sergiu Celibidache at the Academia Chigiana, in Siena, Italy.

David Hayes

David Hayes is a conductor with an unusually broad range of repertory, spanning the symphonic, oratorio/choral and operatic genres. Mr. Hayes is currently the Music Director of The Philadelphia Singers (a professional vocal ensemble). He recently concluded a decade-long tenure on the conducting staff of The Philadelphia Orchestra, with whom he made his subscription debut in 1993 at the request of Wolfgang Sawallisch.

In addition, Mr. Hayes is the Music Director of the Mannes Orchestra and Professor of Professional Practice at Mannes College The New School for Music in New York City and Staff Conductor of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic as well as for Sir Andre Previn on the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s 1999 European Tour with Anne-Sophie Mutter.

During the 2010-2011 season, Mr. Hayes led performances of the Mannes Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall and conducted a double-bill of Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino and Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias for the Curtis Opera Theatre. In May 2011, Mr. Hayes made his debut with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, AR, leading the finals concert of the Fulbright Piano Competition. In addition, Mr. Hayes continues his regular conducting duties with the Mannes Orchestra, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Singers.

Mr. Hayes’s guest conducting engagements over the past few seasons have included concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the Lancaster (PA) Symphony Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic, The Relâche Ensemble, the Rutgers Orchestra, The Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Curtis Opera Theatre, the Opera Company of Philadelphia and a Kennedy Center debut with the Washington Chorus and Orchestra (which includes members of the National Symphony Orchestra).

Mr. Hayes has collaborated with some of the world’s finest soloists. Among the notable composers with whom he has collaborated are Tan Dun, Jennifer Higdon, Ezra Laderman, Sir James MacMillan, Paul Moravec, Bright Sheng, Christopher Theofanidis and Chen Yi, among many others. In the world of popular artists, Mr. Hayes has conducted concerts with Billy Joel, Blue Man Group and John Lithgow.

Mr. Hayes made his debut at the Verbier Festival with the Curtis Orchestra and has made several appearances with the Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra at the Berkshire Choral Festival. In addition, Mr. Hayes and the Mannes Orchestra continue to make yearly appearances at the Mannes Contemporary Music Festival.

Kathy Saltzman Romey

In May 1995, Conductor Kathy Saltzman Romey was named the Minnesota Chorale's fifth artistic director, after serving as associate artistic director of the Minnesota Chorale from 1990 to 1994 and as acting director during the 1994-95 season. She has prepared the Chorale for performances with both the Minnesota Orchestra and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under the baton of such conductors as Edo de Waart, Eduardo Mata, Roger Norrington, Christopher Hogwood, Hugh Wolff, John Harbison, Helmuth Rilling, Bobby McFerrin, Eiji Oue, and Robert Shaw. She also developed and coordinates Bridges, the Chorale's nationally recognized performance outreach program.

Romey graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of Oregon. She continued her studies in Frankfurt, Germany under internationally known Bach scholar and conductor Helmuth Rilling, receiving an artistic degree in choral conducting from the Frankfurt State Conservatory of Music in 1984. During her five years in Germany, she assisted Dr. Rilling at the Memorial Church in Stuttgart, was a member of Rilling's professional choir, the Gaechinger Kantorei, and worked on the staff of the International Bach Academy.

Romey has been a staff member of the Oregon Bach Festival since 1984, currently serving as preparation conductor of the 54-voice professional chorus for festival performances and recordings. In 1998, she prepared the Bach Festival Chorus for the premiere performance of Krzysztof Penderecki's Credo. She later served as choir master for the International Bach Academy Chorus in Krakow, Poland, where she prepared Penderecki's Credo for its European premiere. In the fall of 1999, she again joined the staff of the International Bach Academy to prepare the Brahms German Requiem for a European tour. In June 2000, she traveled to Puerto Rico to assist Dr. Rilling in the preparation of Bach's Mass in B minor at the Casals Festival.

Romey joined the conducting faculty at the University of Minnesota in the fall of 1992, where she directs the Concert Choir, Men's Chorus, and Women's Chorus. From 1985-1992, she was director of choral activities at Macalester College, conducting the Macalester Concert Choir and the Macalester Festival Chorale. She is active regionally and nationally as a guest conductor and clinician at music conferences and festivals.

Gary Thor Wedow

Conductor Gary Thor Wedow has established an enviable reputation for dramatically exciting and historically informed performances with opera companies, festivals and choral organizations throughout North America. He recently led the Seattle Symphony in a Baroque program of Rameau, Handel and Marcello to rave reviews and enthusiastic audience response and following his Rinaldo for the Berkshire Opera, the Boston Globe’s Richard Dyer wrote: “The opera was delightfully played by a first-rate chamber orchestra under the direction Gary Thor Wedow. Years in opera houses have taught him how to make this music theatrical – and how to accommodate singers while challenging them. His work was knowledgeable, vital and full of the smell of candlelight and greasepaint.”

Wedow’s 2010-2011 season included productions of Die Zauberflöte for Seattle Opera, Handel’s Agrippina for Boston Lyric Opera and an ‘Opera Highlights Festival’ with the Seattle Symphony. As well, he continues his relationship with the Juilliard School.

He is a frequent collaborator of countertenor Lawrence Lipnik with whom he has prepared several performing editions of Baroque operas and he was for many years Associate Conductor of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society. As a pianist, Wedow studied with Jorge Bolet. He is currently a faculty member of The Juilliard School.

Joseph Cullen

Described by Opera News as "clearly a name to watch," Joseph Cullen was appointed Director of the London Symphony Chorus in 2001. He has been Chorus Master of the Huddersfield Choral Society since 1999. Joseph has also held the position of Chorus Director of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Director of the Britten-Pears Chamber Choir in Snape. He has made guest conducting appearances with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. His innovative approach to choral training has established him as one of the foremost choral conductors in the country.

He has worked closely with some of the world's leading conductors, including Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Neville Marriner, Mark Elder, Michael Tilson Thomas, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Richard Hickox and Sir Colin Davis, with whom he won a Grammy Award for the 2006 LSO Live recording of Verdi's Falstaff. As well as Walton's Belshazzar's Feast for Chandos and Mahler's Symphony No. 8 for EMI, other recordings for LSO Live include Britten's Peter Grimes, which also received a Grammy nomination. He has released a pair of compilation albums with the Huddersfield Choral Society on the Signum label.

In 2008 he conducted for the second time the London Symphony Chorus in Bach's St. Matthew Passion in the Barbican with the City of London Sinfonia. Earlier in the year he had conducted the LSC with members of the London Symphony Orchestra in works by James MacMillan.

Joseph was born in Glasgow and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where his principal study was violin. He was Organ Scholar of Trinity College Cambridge, and he has held cathedral posts in Glasgow, Leeds and Westminster. He coaches singers both in the world of opera and in the monastic choirs of Benedictine Abbeys in Scotland and the Isle of Wight. He also sings with the vocal group Tenebrae.