Visiting Conductor Julien Benichou Joins Cali School Faculty for 2015-2016
Posted in: Cali School of Music News
We are excited that Julien Benichou is joining the Cali School faculty as Visiting Conductor of the MSU Symphony Orchestra for the 2015-2016 season. He will be conducting a variety of works, including the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2, Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, Beethoven Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) and Franck Symphony in D minor. The orchestra will perform on campus at Kasser Theater, at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and in a joint concert in Maryland with members of the Towson University orchestra and Morgan State University choir.
Mr. Benichou currently serves as Music Director of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra Director at Towson University (MD). He is also Orchestra Director for the McDaniel Orchestra Camp, as well as Principal Conductor for the Towson New Music Ensemble. He has had guest conducting engagements with the Orquestra do Parana, Annapolis Symphony, Mobtown Modern, and the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra. As guest conductor, Mr. Benichou has led the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Mobtown Modern new music concerts in Baltimore, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra/Mobtown Modern Synchronicity collaboration, and the New Music Ensemble at Towson University. He has a special interest in new music and has led commissions, premieres and a recording on the Centaur label. He has also written and conducted the sound track for a recent film. Also an opera and ballet conductor, Mr. Benichou recently worked with the Ballet Theater of Maryland, the Morgan State University Choir and Opera Workshop, as well as the Baltimore Concert Opera.
Mr. Benichou holds a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory as well as a Master’s Degree in Orchestra Conducting from Northwestern University, and did further graduate studies at Yale University. Conductors with whom he has participated in master classes include Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, and JoAnn Falletta. His principal teachers have been Gustav Meier and Victor Yampolsky.