Michael Adelson
Conductor
Michael Adelson is currently conductor of the Auros Group for New Music and a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic. He made his first appearance with a major American orchestra in 1992, conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His other conducting engagements have included The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
Equally at home in the opera house, Mr. Adelson has led Scandinavian productions of Puccini’s Turandot and La Bohème, Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor, and, in Stockholm, the world premiere of Qu Xiao-Song’s Oedipus. In addition to his position as conductor of the Auros Group for New Music, he frequently makes guest-conducting appearances with new music ensembles, including Speculum Musicae, Locrian Chamber Players, Dinosaur Annex, and the Fromm Players at Harvard. He has led world premieres at the Venice Biennale and the Ultima Contemporary Music Festival in Oslo, and has conducted new American music in Europe and Asia as well as in the United States.
Mr. Adelson, who is also an active composer, regularly leads workshops in conducting and orchestral technique for educators, as well as for college and pre-college musicians sponsored by the New York Philharmonic. As the principal conductor of the first annual Rencontres Musicales Europeenes in France, he led a festival orchestra that included students from France, Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic. With the Orkester Norden, he conducted students from all the Nordic countries. He has written and conducted youth concerts with the Helsinki Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Adelson studied at the New England Conservatory and Mannes College of Music, and graduated summa cum laude from Jorma Panula’s conducting class at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
