Music Director - Dr. TIFFANY LU

Conductor Tiffany Lu is in her third season as Music Director of the Pierre Monteux School and Music Festival and also serves as Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Florida, earning particular accolades for her music directorship of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and UF Opera's production of Carmen, as well as performing by invitation with the UF Symphony Orchestra at the 2026 Florida Music Education Association Conference. Recent guest conducting appearances include the Orquesta Sinfónica del Instituto Politécnico Nacional of Mexico, Ocala Symphony Orchestra, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, NYSSMA 2024 All-State Symphonic Orchestra, Symphony New Hampshire, and Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Lu regularly adjudicates and gives clinics at the high school and collegiate level across the country, and is also currently serving as Vice President of the College Orchestra Directors’ Association. 

From 2020-2022, Lu was Director of the Sewanee Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Professor of Orchestral Conducting at Sewanee University of the South. Prior to her current appointment, Lu served for five seasons as Associate Conductor of the Pierre Monteux Music Festival and two seasons as Interim Music Director. Lu also formerly held positions as Assistant Conductor with the Prince Georges’ Philharmonic (MD), Music Director of the Wilmington Community Orchestra (DE), Assistant and Associate Conductor with Washington, D.C.’s Capital City Symphony, Music Director of the University of Maryland Repertoire Orchestra, cover conductor and principal librarian at the 2016 and 2017 National Orchestral Institute, and conductor with the DC Youth Orchestra Program and Annapolis Symphony Academy. She has also served as lead producer on recordings by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Smithsonian Chamber Players. 

Lu grew up in Tampa, FL and holds degrees from Princeton University, Ithaca College, and the University of Maryland.

Associate Conductor - Kyle Ritenauer

Kyle Ritenauer is an emerging presence in the classical music world, noted for his versatility across the symphonic stage, opera, and ballet. He made his Kennedy Center debut in 2025, conducting the National Symphony Orchestra in performance. Kyle is a frequent presence at Lincoln Center having recently led 22 performances with the New York City Ballet across productions including Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker, in addition to several other ballets. Kyle currently serves as the Director of Orchestral Studies at Montclair State University, is a member of the Artistic Staff at the Manhattan School of Music, is a regular guest conductor for The Juilliard School, and serves as associated conductor and faculty at the Monteux School and Music Festival. 

In the world of opera, Kyle has worked with companies including Opéra de Montréal and Des Moines Metro Opera, the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Singers, and most recently prepared Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges with The Juilliard School Orchestra and Vocal Department. As principal conductor of the Cali Opera Program, Kyle has led productions of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Cavalli’s La Calisto, and is excited for this year’s production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. 

A teacher at heart, Kyle works to make classical music meaningful and relevant for his students, guiding them to approach their craft with both excellence and imagination. His primary appointment is as Interim Director of Orchestral Studies at Montclair State University, where he leads the John J. Cali School of Music Symphony Orchestra, collaborates with the Cali Opera Program, and teaches a full studio of graduate orchestral conducting students. Kyle considers the John J. Cali School his musical home. 

Nationally sought after as a teacher, Kyle has served on the artistic staff of the Manhattan School of Music since 2021, is a member of the conducting faculty at the internationally recognized Pierre Monteux School, and regularly guest conducts at The Juilliard School. He maintains deep connections with youth orchestras and high school musicians across the country and was recognized as Collegiate Teacher of the Year by the American String Teachers Association

Kyle has appeared as guest conductor with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Symphony New Hampshire, Capitol Philharmonic of New Jersey, Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. As a cover conductor Kyle has worked with the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the American Composers Orchestra.

GUEST CONDUCTING FACULTY - TITO MUÑOZ

Praised for his versatility, technical clarity, and keen musical insight, Tito Muñoz is internationally recognised as one of the most gifted conductors of his generation. Following his ten-year tenure as the Virginia G. Piper Music Director of The Phoenix Symphony, which concluded in the 2023/24 season, he continues his association with the orchestra as Artistic Partner. In the 2025/26 season, he also takes up the role of Interim Principal Conductor at the Cleveland Institute of Music, becoming a guest member of its Orchestral Studies faculty.

Tito previously served as Music Director of the Opéra National de Lorraine in France, and earlier held Assistant Conductor positions with the Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Aspen Music Festival.

He has appeared with many of North America’s leading orchestras, including those of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, New York, and Utah, as well as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s – making his Carnegie Hall debut with the latter in a sold-out performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana in February 2024. Maintaining a strong international conducting presence, Tito has also worked with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, SWR Symphonieorchester, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Île de France, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Philharmonic (London), Ulster Orchestra, Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Music Makers Singapore, Auckland Philharmonia, Sydney Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, São Paulo State Symphony, Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, and Opéra de Rennes.

The 2025/26 season includes debuts with the New Jersey Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, Jena Philharmonie, Nürnberger Symphoniker, and Komische Oper Berlin, alongside return appearances with SWR Symphonieorchester and the New York Philharmonic.

A committed advocate for contemporary music, Tito has championed composers of our time through commissions, premieres, and recordings. He has conducted important premieres of works by Christopher Cerrone, Kenneth Fuchs, Dai Fujikura, Michael Hersch, Adam Schoenberg, Mauricio Sotelo, and Francisco Coll. His close collaboration with Hersch has included world premieres of On the Threshold of Winter (Brooklyn Academy of Music, 2014), the Violin Concerto with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (2015), I hope we get a chance to visit soon (Ojai and Aldeburgh Festivals), the script of storms (BBC Symphony Orchestra, London), and And We, each (2024). In March 2025, Tito led the American Composers Orchestra in premieres by Tomàs Peire Serrate, Clarice Assad, and Edmar Castañeda at Carnegie Hall, receiving glowing reviews, ‘Brilliantly led by conductor Tito Muñoz, the concert felt like the center of a social triangle of concerts, parties, and going to church’ (Boyd, 2025).

A passionate educator, Tito is a regular guest at many of North America’s leading educational institutions, summer festivals, and youth orchestras. He has led performances at the Eastman School of Music, Aspen Music Festival, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Cleveland Institute of Music, Indiana University, Kent/Blossom Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, New England Conservatory, New World Symphony, Oberlin Conservatory, Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), University of Texas at Austin, and National Repertory Orchestra, as well as a nine-city tour with the St. Olaf College Orchestra.

Born in Queens, New York, Tito began his musical training as a violinist in the city’s public schools. He later studied at the LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts, Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, and the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division. He continued violin studies with Daniel Phillips at Queens College (CUNY) before turning to conducting at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, working with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin. He won the Aspen Music Festival’s 2005 Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize and 2006 Aspen Conducting Prize, serving as the festival’s Assistant Conductor in 2007 and later returning as a guest conductor.

Tito made his professional conducting debut in 2006 with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, invited by Leonard Slatkin as a participant of the National Conducting Institute. That same year, he made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Music Festival. He was awarded the 2009 Mendelssohn Scholarship sponsored by Kurt Masur and the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation in Leipzig, and was a prizewinner in the 2010 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt.

GUEST CONDUCTING FACULTY - MING LUKE

With the “energy, creativity and charisma not seen since Leonard Bernstein” and “vibrant,” “mind-blowing,” and “spectacular” conducting, Ming Luke is a versatile conductor that has excited audiences around the world. Highlights include conducting the Bolshoi Orchestra in Moscow, performances of Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella at the Kennedy Center, Swan Lake at the Teatro Real in Madrid, his English debut at Sadler’s Wells with Birmingham Royal, conducting Dvorak’s Requiem in Dvorak Hall in Prague, recording scores for a Coppola film, multiple Asian cultural programs with the San Francisco Symphony, and over a hundred and fifty performances at the San Francisco War Memorial with San Francisco Ballet. Luke has soloed as a pianist with Pittsburgh Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, and San Francisco Ballet, and he currently serves as Music Director for the Las Cruces Symphony, Merced Symphony, and Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra; Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Nashville Ballet, Education Conductor and Director for the Berkeley Symphony; and Principal Guest Conductor for the San Francisco Ballet. Long time critic Allan Ulrich of the San Francisco Chronicle said, “Ming Luke delivered the best live theater performance I’ve ever heard of [Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet]” and in 2016 Luke’s War Requiem was named best choral performance of 2016 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Luke is proud to cultivate a dynamic career in both symphonic and theatrical conducting, and has conducted hundreds of opera and ballet performances worldwide. He has performed and collaborated with some of the world's leading singers, including Sylvia McNair, Christian Van Horn, Nicolas Phan, Kiera Duffy, Erie Mills, Kevin Short, and Monica Yunus, to name a few. Sylvia McNair remarked that "Ming is a very talented musician and conductor... when Ming was in charge of something, anything, I knew I had no worries." His recent performances with members of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra at Classical Tahoe were broadcast on PBS. Passionate about collaboration with dance companies and deepening the impact of movement to live music, Luke has collaborated with many of the world's leading choreographers, including Mark Morris, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, Cathy Marston, Benjamin Millepied, David Dawson, and more. Luke has guested with Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet, Nashville Symphony/Ballet, San Diego Ballet and others and conducted l’Orchestre Prométhée in Paris as part of San Francisco Ballet’s residency with Les Etés de la Danse. Famed dancer Natalia Makarova stated, “Ming has a mixture of pure musicality and a sensitivity to needs of the dancers, which are such rare qualities.”

Luke has been recognized nationally for his work with music education and has designed and conducted over 150 education concerts and programs with organizations such as the Berkeley Symphony, Houston Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, San Francisco Opera and others. Luke has served on grant panels for the National Endowment of the Arts and the Grants and Cultural Committee of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. An exciting pops conductor, Luke has created and conducted a variety of pops concerts in many venues, from baseball stadiums, to picnics in the park with over 4,000 people in attendance, traditional concert halls and recording for Major League Baseball.

Ming Luke holds a Master of Fine Arts in Conducting from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Piano Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College of Rider University.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - ERIC KUTZ

Cellist Eric Kutz has captivated audiences across North America, Asia, and Europe. His diverse collaborations cut across musical styles, and have ranged from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to jazz great Ornette Coleman. He is active as a teacher, a chamber musician, an orchestral musician, and a concerto soloist. Kutz joined the University of Maryland School of Music in 2015, where he holds the Barbara K. Steppel Memorial Faculty Fellowship in cello, and performs as a member of the Left Bank Quartet. Previously, he was a professor at Luther College, where he served on the faculty from 2002-2015, and prior to that, Kutz was the cellist of the Chester String Quartet for four years. The Quartet, called “one of the best and brightest of the country’s young string quartets” by the Boston Globe, was in residence at Indiana University South Bend. The Quartet gave two tours of Europe during Kutz’s tenure, and performed from coast to coast. Kutz is a founding member of the Murasaki Duo, a cello and piano ensemble formed at the Juilliard School in 1996. In 2017, the Duo gave its second tour to Europe and Asia. Advocates for new music, the Duo actively commissions new works, in addition to performing the classics. Hailed by New York Concert Review as having “an easy virtuosity, and an unusually high level of ensemble playing,” after its Carnegie Hall debut, the Duo regularly performs on chamber music series throughout the nation.

As an orchestral musician, Kutz summers in Chicago as a member of the Grant Park Orchestra’s cello section. He has also appeared in the section of the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has been principal cellist of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and the Juilliard Orchestra, and he has performed under the batons of Sir Georg Solti, Kurt Masur, and Seiji Ozawa, among many others. In 1997, Kutz traveled to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow as a visiting artist, performing new chamber works by American composers. Other performance highlights include a tour of Germany and a concert in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall as part of Lincoln Center’s Mozart Bicentennial celebration. Kutz has premiered over two-dozen works, and has been broadcast live on WQXR and WNYC, both of New York City, WFMT Chicago, as well as nationally on PBS television’s Live from Lincoln Center. Kutz holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Rice University. He performs on a cello by Raffaele Fiorini (Bologna, 1877), and a bow by François Voirin (Paris, 1880).

artist in residence - irina muresanu

Romanian-born violinist Irina Muresanu is an artist equally in demand on both sides of the Atlantic, as she has appeared throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and South Africa. Ms. Muresanu has firmly established herself as a successful recording artist, and her bold programming with exciting thematic concepts define her as a versatile and innovative performer.

A laureate and winner of top prizes in several prestigious international violin competitions including the Montreal International, Queen Elisabeth, UNISA International String, Washington International, and the Schadt String Competition, Muresanu achieved international acclaim early on. Muresanu’s awards also include the Presser Award, the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association, the Creative and Performing Arts Award from the University of Maryland, a prestigious New Music USA Grant, a Pro Musicis International Award. 

Ms. Muresanu's 2025-26 season includes solo, recital and chamber music appearances in renowned venues and festivals. As part of her commitment to innovative repertoire, Muresanu has commissioned from Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate the first American Indian violin concerto in history.  The exciting world premiere of the work titled “Hattak Hiloha” (Thunder Beings), will take place in June 2026 with the National Orchestra Institute, followed by performances in the Cabrillo Festival (August 2026) and with the National Philharmonic (November 2026), amongst many others. Solo appearances also include a performance and recording of the Elena Ruehr’s Violin Concerto (written for Muresanu) with the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, an extensive tour of Bosnia and Herzegovina as soloist of the Profundis Orchestra from Skopje, North Macedonia, as well as appearances with the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Symphonicity Orchestra (Virginia), and the Cayman National Orchestra. 

Highlights of Muresanu’s season also include concerts in the United States, France, Spain and Romania as recitalist and chamber musician. Muresanu has recently launched a project called “Itineraries”, which follows a geographical trajectory through composers from the respective countries. This season’s journeys are: “From Madrid to Bucharest” (with pianist Daniel del Pino) and “From Tel Aviv to New York” (with cellist Julian Schwarz), with more to follow in future seasons. The acclaimed violinist is an ambassador of Romanian music, which she promotes on a regular basis, often in programs with her long-term duo partner, the pianist Dana Ciocârlie.

In parallel, Muresanu's acclaimed solo violin multi-media program “Four Strings Around the World - which celebrates the diversity of music cultures worldwide through works of composers from five continents - continues to evolve. At the present moment, it includes composers from 5 continents and 18 countries. The ever-evolving project includes staple masterpieces for solo violin such as the Bach Chaconne, alongside commissioned new works of Indian composer Shirish Korde, Native American composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Nigerian composer Fred Onovwerosuoke, Iranian composer Sanam Gharacheh, and Jamaican composer Mikhail Johnson. Released as a solo violin CD in 2018 by the Grammy-nominated Sono Luminus label, the CD has been called an "illuminating release" by the Boston Globe. The program was highlighted in a Virtual Reality collaboration with the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. 

Muresanu has recently been awarded the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award and the Independent Scholarship, Research and Creativity Award from the University of Maryland, for her project “Infinite Strings”: the creation of a platform designed to promote violin music by Romanian composers. She is also the recipient of a three-year National Science Foundation grant and a “Grand Challenges” grant from the University of Maryland for the “Music Education for All through AI and Digital Humanities” research she is conducting at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, where she has recently been named Affiliate Faculty.

 An active chamber musician and recitalist, Ms. Muresanu is a member of the Boston Trio and has appeared as guest artist in such festivals and venues as New York City’s Bargemusic, Massachusetts’ Rockport Festival, Maine’s Bay Chambers concert series and Bowdoin Festival, Colorado’s Strings in the Mountains and San Juan Music Festival, Hawaii’s Maui Chamber Music Festival, The Netherland’s Reizend Music Festival, Belgium’s Festival van de Leie, and the Rencontres des Musiciennes Festival in France and the Guadeloupe island.

Ms. Muresanu is an avid performer of new music, having had numerous works written and dedicated to her. Her most recent releases are “Irina Muresanu plays Violeta Dinescu” of solo violin works by Violeta Dinescu (September 2023) and “Hybrid, Hints and Hooks” of solo and violin/piano works by Romanian composer Dan Dediu (October 2021), both on Métier label. Other recent recordings include Thomas Oboe Lee’s Violin Concerto (also dedicated to Ms. Muresanu) on the BMOP label, and works by Elena Ruehr for the Avie Records CD “Lift,” included on Keith Powers’ 13 Best Classical Music Recordings of 2016. She has also recorded the complete William Bolcom sonatas on the Centaur label with pianist Michael Lewin, funded by the Copland Recording Grant, and the Guillaume Lekeu and Alberic Magnard late Romantic Violin and Piano Sonatas with pianist Dana Ciocarlie for the French label AR RE-SE (“singing and soaring…[a] sizzling performance.” Fanfare). Of note among additional recordings is the world premiere recording of Marion Bauer’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, with pianist Virginia Eskin for Albany Records.

Irina Muresanu is a Professor in the School of Music, Affiliate Faculty in the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, and Affiliate Faculty in the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at the University of Maryland, and has been on the faculties of Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She has been previously on the faculties of Harvard and MIT Music Departments. She holds a prestigious Artist Diploma degree and a Doctor in Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with the legendary French violinist Michèle Auclair. Muresanu plays an 1849 Giuseppe Rocca violin and an Étienne Pajeot bow.

artist in residence - Emily Tsai

Emily Tsai is a professional oboist, oboe instructor and music arranger.

She is the Assistant Principal Oboe in the Washington National Opera and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and can be seen performing regularly at the Kennedy Center in Washignton, DC on opera, ballet and musical theater productions.

Emily has a passion for education and is the Assistant Oboe Professor at the University of Maryland School of Music. She has also and has taught artist residencies and masterclasses at many colleges and universities, including the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, University of Maryland, Orchestra of the Americas and New World Symphony. 

Along with her local DMV positions at the Kennedy Center and the University of Maryland, Emily is an MKI artist as the oboist of WindSync, gold medalist at the International Fischoff Competition and medalist at the M-prize Chamber Arts Competition. She has performed with WindSync in prominent venues such as Ravinia, IL, the Library of Congress, DC, the Grand Tetons Music Festival, WY, Strathmore, MD, among others.  

Besides WindSync, Emily has performed chamber music with such prominent musicians as Nathan Hughes, Frank Morelli, Clive Greensmith, and Martin Chalifour. She is also the co-founder, oboist and violinist of C Street Collective.

She has been featured as a soloist with the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Alba Festival Orchestra, Amadeus Orchestra, Washington Asian Philharmonic and the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra and has several solo appearances coming up this season.

Her main teachers include Mark Hill, Richard Killmer, and Malcolm Smith. Emily received her Bachelor of Music degree in Oboe Performance, with a Performer’s Certificate and the Chamber Music Award, from the Eastman School of Music, and her Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Rochester, graduating Magna Cum Laude. She received her Master of Music from the University of Maryland, where she was part of the Graduate Fellowship Quintet.
 
Emily is a Lorée Artist and plays on a Lorée Royal oboe and a Lorée English Horn. 

Her greatest passions are to use music as a means to bring communities together, teach and encourage young people to engage with classical music and expand the repertoire for the double reeds in particular.

In her downtime, Emily has completed a number of half marathons, a full marathon, an Olympic triathlon, and a Tough Mudder, and loves to do various outdoor adventures with her husband, Karl. Inside, she can be found playing video games, and spoiling her two adorable cats, Xenia and Perch.