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Howard Hsu
Director of Orchestra Studies
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Howard Hsu is the Music Director of the Valdosta (GA) Symphony Orchestra, and serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Orchestra Studies at Valdosta State University. He has performed with world-renowned artists such as violinist Robert McDuffie, cellist Wendy Warner and pianist Alexander Ghindin, and has introduced live classical music to thousands of children in the Southern Georgia region. In 2010–11, he will make his debut as Guest Conductor with the Macon (GA) Symphony Orchestra, sharing the stage with Robert McDuffie. Mr. Hsu made his debut with the Hartford (CT) Symphony Orchestra as Guest Conductor of concerts featuring the Empire Brass. As Guest Conductor, Narrator and Co-Writer of the HSO's “Symphony in the Schools” Fleet Chamber Orchestra Series, he led an interactive program that brought classical music to thousands of young students throughout the Hartford Public School system. He has also been a Guest Conductor with the New Britain (CT) Symphony, Ottumwa (IA) Symphony and Bronx (NY) Arts Ensemble, with whom he conducted the world premiere of Eleanor Cory’s O’Keeffe’s Flora.
Mr. Hsu was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Connecticut and Associate Conductor of the University of Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, and was Visiting Instructor of Music and Director of the Orchestra at Connecticut College. Other positions held include Cover Conductor with the Westchester (NY) Philharmonic and Music Director of the Noe Chamber Symphony (CA), with whom he performed the chamber arrangement of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde to benefit the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Mr. Hsu has worked closely with groups dedicated to training young musicians, including the Lake George (NY) Opera Festival, where he served as Associate Conductor and Music Director of the Apprentice opera scenes concerts. He will conduct the 2010 Georgia Music Educators Association District 12 High School Honor Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Hsu has conducted the Massachusetts Music Educators’ Association Central District Senior High School Festival Orchestra, the Governor’s Honors Program Orchestra (GA), the Greater Waterbury (CT) Youth Symphony and the Greater Bridgeport (CT) Youth Orchestras. Through the Hartford Symphony’s Mentoring Program he served as a Master Teaching Artist, and was a faculty member with The Harlem (NY) School of the Arts.
Mr. Hsu received his D.M.A from the University of Connecticut, his M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and his B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has conducted in masterclasses with Gerard Schwarz, Zdenek Macal, Yoel Levi, Larry Rachleff, Thomas Wilkins, Edward Cumming, Alasdair Neale, Barbara Yahr, Lawrence Leighton Smith and Samuel Jones.