Michael Gelfand

Michael Gelfand, Music Director/ Conductor of the Greenville Symphony since 2002, received his Bachelor of Music degree at Indiana University in Blooming­ton (IU), Indiana; and his Master of Music degree at the Cleveland In­stitute of Music (CIM), in cello and conducting. His doctoral studies were at the Cincinnati College-Con­servatory of Music (CCM). He also pursued conducting studies at Inter­lochen, IU, CIM, Academie Interna­tionale d'ete de Nice, France, Pierre Monteux School for Advanced Con­ductors in Maine, and Conductor's Guild Workshops in San
Francis­co and West Virginia, and at CCM.

Michael is a Youngstown State University Professor Emeri­tus, having taught at the YSU Dana School of Music from 1975 to 2014. From 1980 to 1990, he was Director of Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and Opera and Music Theater Productions from 1980 to 1990, and was Music Director of the Ashtabula Area Orchestra from 1992 to 2008. Recent guest conducting included four engagements as part of the Bulgarian Cultural Exchange with Bulgarian Maestro Svilen Simeonov, conducting the Vidin State Philharmonic and the Sofia Sinfonette, con­certs conducting the Butler County Symphony Orches­tra, the Warren Philharmonic, and the Warren Festival Orchestra. Each summer since 1999 he conducts the 80-member Chamber Orchestra at the String Camp in Rapid City, S.D. He was a member of the Board of Directors and a judge for the Irving Klein International String Competi­tion held each June in San Francisco from 2005 to 2015.

As a concert cellist, Michael has performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. He has stud­ied with Marion Feldman (Manhattan School of Mu­sic), Janos Starker and Fritz Magg (Indiana Univer­sity), Ronald Leonard (Eastman), Theo Saltzman (Pittsburgh Symphony), William Stokking and Elsa Hilger (Philadelphia Orchestra), Harvey Shapiro (Juil­liard), and Mihaly Virizlay (Baltimore Symphony).

He has performed under the baton of many of the world's leading conductors as a member of the Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Cincinnati Pops Or­chestra, Nice Philharmonic (France) and San Jose Sym­phony. These conductors included Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, William Steinberg, Lovro von Matacic, Eugene Ormandy, Arthur Fiedler, Eric Kunzel, Gunther Schuller, Jesus Lobos Cobos, Michael Tilson Thomas and others. He has been principal cellist of the Syracuse Symphony and Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and was principal cellist of the Youngstown Symphony, Warren Philharmonic and Opera Western Reserve from 1975 to 2022. He continues to perform as a member of the cello sections of these orchestras and holds the honor and and distinction of being principal cellist, guest soloist and guest conductor of both the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra and Warren Philharmonic.

He has performed at music festivals at Tanglewood, Blossom, Riverbend, Temple, Colorado Music Festival, Cincinnati May Festival, Jackson Hole, Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Charleston, SC and Spoleto, Italy, Nice Academie d’Ete in France. Michael has had memberships in many chamber music groups including the Cazenovia String Quartet, Syracuse Symphony String Quartet, Cleveland Orchestra Duo, Youngstown Symphony String Quartet, Amici Trio, New Amici Trio, and the Youngstown Chamber Players.

Michael has been awarded scholarships to In­terlachen, Indiana University, the Charlotte G. Ma­saryk Society Award, Lincoln Center Student Award, Fellowship to Tanglewood, Fellowship to the Cleve­land Institute of Music and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, grant from the French Gov­ernment to the Nice Academie d'Ete, Ohio Arts Coun­cil Grant, and the WYSU-FM Silver Jubilee Award for Excellence in the Fine Art of Keeping Classical Music Accessible and Alive with the Ashtabula Area Orchestra. He has been awarded the Distinguished Professor Award at Youngstown State University.

Michael resides in Boardman, Ohio, with his wife Amy, a school psychologist with the Mahon­ing County Educational Service Center, and their two cats. Their son Nate is a professional musician in Columbus, Ohio, and daughter Lily is a profession­al dancer with David Dorfman Dance, based in NYC.

Michael enjoys swimming, biking, travel­ing, playing chamber music with friends and read­ing legal thrillers and science fiction. He also main­tains a private teaching studio of 20 cello students.