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Artistic Personnel

Elizabeth Schulze, Music Director

With passion, verve and illuminating musicianship, Elizabeth Schulze has been conducting orchestras and opera companies, advocating for music education, and electrifying audiences in the States and abroad for more than two and a half decades.

Recipient of the 2013 Sorel Medallion in Conducting for her adventurous programming, Schulze is in her 24th season as the Music Director and Conductor of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and is the recently appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra in Alaska.

Schulze made her European debut leading the Mainz Chamber Orchestra in the Atlantisches Festival in Kaiserslautern, Germany. She appeared in Paris as the assistant guest conductor for the Paris Opera and has also appeared in London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Vienna with the National Symphony during its 1997 European tour. Her most recent international work includes conducting in Hong Kong, Jerusalem and Taipei.

Schulze’s recent guest conducting in the States includes appearances with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the New Jersey, Detroit, San Francisco and Chautauqua Symphonies. Her positions with U.S. orchestras include an appointment as Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, Music Director and Conductor of the Flagstaff, Waterloo/Cedar Falls, and Kenosha Symphony Orchestras, Principal Guest Conductor of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Cover Conductor and Conducting Assistant for the New York Philharmonic, and Assistant Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic, an appointment sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Since the beginning of her career, Schulze has been a spirited advocate for music education. Her far-ranging work included a long association with the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute (SMI). For more than 15 years Schulze conducted, taught and mentored dozens of young musicians at SMI at the Kennedy Center.  She has also conducted the American Composer’s Orchestra in LinkUp educational and family concerts in Carnegie Hall and throughout New York City. And for six years, Schulze joined her mentor Leonard Slatkin, teaching at the NSO’s National Conducting Institute.

Her music education and mentoring work spans the Elementary School to the University. She was an artist-in-residence at Northwestern University and has guest conducted the orchestras of The University of Maryland, the Manhattan School of Music and Catholic University of America. She has also guest lectured at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Schulze’s own education includes training in Europe and in the States. She graduated cum laude from Bryn Mawr College and was an honors student at the Interlochen Arts Academy. She holds graduate degrees in orchestral and choral conducting from SUNY at Stony Brook.  She was the first doctoral fellow in orchestral conducting at Northwestern University and was selected as a conducting fellow at L’École d’Arts Americaines in France.  She was the recipient of the first Aspen Music School Conducting Award. At Aspen, she worked with Murry Sidlin, Lawrence Foster and Sergiu Commissiona. As a Tanglewood fellow, she worked with Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier and Leonard Bernstein.

Schulze is represented by John Such Artists Management, Ltd.

Updated: August 2023

2023-2024 Orchestra

First Violins

Robert Martin
     Concertmaster
     MSO Guild Chair

Joanna Natalia Owen
     Associate Concertmaster
Lysiane Gravel-Lacombe +
     Assistant Concertmaster
Brent Price +
     Thomas Marks Chair
Kristin Bakkegard
H. Lee Brewster
Yen-Jung Chen
Mauricio D. Couto
Sarah D'Angelo +
Megan Gray
Catherine Nelson
Petr Skopek

Second Violins

Marissa Murphy
     Principal
     J. Emmet Burke Chair

Ariadna Buonviri
     Associate Principal
Julianna Chitwood
     Assistant Principal
Karin Kelleher
Ruth Erbe
Teresa L. Gordon
Melanie Kuperstein
Swiatek Kuznik
Kat Whitesides
Patricia Wnek-Schram

Violas

Phyllis Freeman *
     Principal
     Alan J. Noia Chair

Magaly Rojas Seay +
     Acting Principal
Daphne Benichou *
     Associate Principal
Stephanie Knutsen +
     Acting Associate Principal
Catherine Amoury +
     Assistant Principal
Sungah Min
Rachel Holaday
Alice Tung
Heidi Remick +
Sean Lyons *

Cellos

Todd Thiel
     Principal
     J. Ramsay Farah Chair

Katlyn DeGraw
     Associate Principal
Jessica Albrecht
     Assistant Principal
Aneta Otreba
Mauricio Betanzo
Youbin Jun
Alyssa Moquin
Jessica Siegel Weaver

Basses

Adriane Benvenuti Irving
     Principal
     Stuart Knussen Chair

Shawn Alger
     Associate Principal
Alec Hiller
Kimberly Parillo
Brandon Smith

Flutes

Laura Kaufman Mowry +
     Acting Principal
     Marjorie M. Hobbs Chair

Nicolette Driehuys Oppelt
Elena Yakovleva

Piccolo

Elena Yakovleva

Oboes

Fatma Daglar
     Principal
     Joel L. Rosenthal Chair

Amanda Dusold
Rick Basehore

English Horn

Rick Basehore

Clarinets

Beverly Butts
     Principal
     John M. Waltersdorf Chair

Jay Niepoetter

Bass Clarinet

Open

Bassoons

Erich Heckscher
     Principal
     Bennett S. Rubin Chair

Scott Cassada
Susan Copeland Wilson

Contrabassoon

Susan Copeland Wilson

Horns

Open Position
     Principal
     Libby Powell Chair

Mark Hughes
     Assistant Principal
Chandra Cervantes
James D. Vaughn

Trumpets

Nathan Clark
     Principal
     Robert T. Kenney Chair

Scott A. Nelson
     Robert W. Grab Chair
Matthew Misener

Trombones

Liam Glendening
     Principal
     Richard T. Whisner Chair

Jeffrey Gaylord
Kaz Kruszewski

Tuba

Zachary Bridges
     Principal
     Claude J. Bryant Chair

Timpani

Jonathan Milke +
     Principal
     William J. Reuter Chair

Percussion

Open Position
     Principal
     Donald R. Harsh, Jr. Chair

Julie Angelis Boehler
     Acting Principal
Robert Jenkins

Harp

Maryanne Meyer +
     
Principal

Piano/Keyboard

Open Position
     James G. Pierné Chair

Personnel Manager

Christian Simmelink

Librarian

D. Marianne Gooding

Recording Engineer

Bill Holaday


* On leave

+ One-year position