Rebecca Miller conductor

California-born conductor Rebecca Miller has earned international acclaim for her compelling, insightful, and energetic presence on the podium and for her ability to communicate with audiences of all ages. She spreads her work between professional, amateur and youth orchestras and choirs, and is passionate about music’s relevance to our society, artistic citizenship, and championing unduly-neglected female composers. She is currently Director of Orchestras at Royal Holloway University, Principal Conductor of the Royal Orchestral Society, Principal Conductor of the Bishop’s Stortford Sinfonia, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra of the Swan. She most recently served as Chief Conductor of the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra in Sweden from 2019-2023.

Her guest conducting includes the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Gävle Symphony, Västerås Symphony, DalaSinfonietta, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London Mozart Players, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, and National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. First prize winner in the Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition, she has conducted throughout Mexico, including repeated engagements with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional, Orquesta Filarmonica del UNAM, and the state orchestras of Yucatan, Aguascalientes, and Sinaloa. In 2017, Rebecca was also featured in the Bruno Walter National Conductors Preview with the Nashville Symphony.

Rebecca’s discography includes CDs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (CPE Bach Symphonies / Signum Records, which made the final shortlist for a 2014 Gramophone Award), with the BBC Concert Orchestra (Henry Hadley Orchestral works / Dutton Epoch), and with the BBC Scottish Symphony (piano concertos by Amy Beach, Dorothy Howell, Cecil Chaminade / Hyperion Records), and three CDs with the Royal Northern Sinfonia (Haydn Symphonies / Signum Records. Her most recent recording is of the orchestral music of Dorothy Howell with the BBC Concert Orchestra for Signum, which will be released in March 2024.

Rebecca is passionate about her work with young musicians – she works regularly with the National Children’s Orchestra and LSO Discovery, and has also guest conducted the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland, Wales, and Great Britain, and the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. She was conductor at the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior Department for many years, where she formed the groundbreaking and unique JA Classical Orchestra, and previously served as Associate Conductor of the Southbank Sinfonia in London.

As Director of Orchestras at Royal Holloway University of London, she has been widely acclaimed for building the orchestral programme to new heights – starting an orchestral scholarship programme, initiating a side-by-side programme with the London Mozart Players, securing high-profile engagements (including ‘Magna Carta 800 at Runnymede’ a project with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Temple Church Choir, performed in the the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth II and 4000 dignitaries and honoured guests), and establishing a new initiative called ‘Music +’, which aims to build bridges through music with interdepartmental projects and interdisciplinary research.

Previously, Rebecca served as Resident Conductor of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and American Conducting Fellow of The Houston Symphony, and Assistant Conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. She holds a B.Mus. in Piano Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, an M.Mus in Orchestral Conducting from Northwestern University, and for two years was the Paul Woodhouse Junior Fellow in Orchestral Conducting at London’s Royal College of Music.

Orion Weiss piano

One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation, Orion Weiss is widely regarded as a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post). With a warmth to his playing that outwardly reflects his engaging personality, Weiss has dazzled audiences with his passionate, lush sound and performed with dozens of orchestras in North America including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic.

Highlights of Weiss’s 2023/2024 season include concerts led by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Ken-David Masur with the National Symphony Orchestra, both featuring programs of Mozart and Brahms. In concerts at the Kennedy Center, as well as Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music and at Charlottesville, Virginia’s Cabell Hall, Weiss performs alongside violinist Augustin Hadelich. He also appears in a May 2024 performance at Carnegie Hall. Other appearances this season include engagements at the Schubert Club, the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Hong Kong Premiere Performances, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Northwestern University, Chamber Music in Oklahoma, a West Coast tour with violinist James Ehnes and numerous concerto appearances with orchestras across the country. He also mentors and performs with students during a weeklong residency at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

Recent seasons have seen Weiss in performances for the Lucerne Festival, the Denver Friends of Chamber Music, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Series, and the 92nd Street Y, and at summer music festivals including Aspen, Bard, Ravinia, Seattle, and Grand Teton, among others. Highlights also include his third performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a live-stream with the Minnesota Orchestra, a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the release of his recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, the first two installments of his critically acclaimed Arc recital trilogy, a recording of Korngold’s Left Hand concerto and other works with Leon Botstein and TON, and recordings of Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta.

Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with Hadelich, as well as fellow violinists William Hagen and James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; cellist Julie Albers; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Weiss has appeared across the United States at venues and festivals including Sheldon Concert Hall, the Broad Stage, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, the Schubert Club, Chamber Music Northwest, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Spivey Hall, and many more.

In the summer of 2011, Weiss made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood as a last-minute replacement for Leon Fleisher. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and in duo summer concerts with the New York Philharmonic at both Lincoln Center and the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Itzhak Perlman.

Weiss can be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, First Hand, Yarlung, and Artek labels in recordings such as The Piano Protagonists with The Orchestra Now, led by Leon Botstein; Scarlatti’s Complete Keyboard Sonatas; a disc of Bartók, Dvorák, and Prokofiev; Brahms Sonatas with violinist Arnaud Sussmann; a solo album of J.S. Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, and Carter; and a recital disc of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Schumann, Massenet, and Piatigorsky with cellist Julie Albers. In March 2022, First Hand Records released the first album of Weiss’s Arc Trilogy – Arc I: Granados, Janáček, Scriabin – a recording exploring the omens and tension of the period preceding World War I. Gramophone Magazine praised the album as “expansive, colourful, and texturally varied.” Arc II, featuring the music of Ravel, Brahms, and Shostakovich, was released in November 2022. Over recent years, Weiss has also raised his profile through video, assembling a broad and growing YouTube videography that includes the Goldberg variations, the Op. 39 Rachmaninoff etudes, and Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, among many others.

Weiss’s impressive list of awards includes the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at The Juilliard School, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. He won the 2005 William Petschek Recital Award at Juilliard and made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall that April. Also in 2005, Weiss made his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. From 2002-2004, he was a member of Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two), which included his performance of Ravel’s La Valse with Shai Wosner in the opening concert of the Society’s 2002-2003 season at Alice Tully Hall.

A native of Lyndhurst, Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, Sergei Babayan, Kathryn Brown, and Edith Reed. In February 1999, Weiss made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The next month, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and was immediately invited to return for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in that October. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax. Learn more www.orionweiss.com.