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 NEAL GITTLEMAN - The 2008-2009 season is Neal Gittleman's fourteenth year as Music Director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Gittleman has led the orchestra to new levels of artistic achievement and increasing acclaim throughout the country. American Record Guide magazine has praised the orchestra's performance as has the Cincinnati Enquirer, which called the DPO "a precise, glowing machine." When the Orchestra christened the Mead Theatre in the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in March of 2003, the Enquirer reported that "Gittleman has brought the DPO to a new level." During his tenure, the orchestra has received seven ASCAP awards from the American Symphony Orchestra League for adventurous programming.
Prior his arrival in Dayton, Gittleman served as Music Director of the Marion (IN) Philharmonic, Associate Conductor of the Syracuse Symphony, and Assistant Conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, a post he held under the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program. He also served ten seasons as Associate Conductor and Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Neal Gittleman has appeared as guest conductor with many of the country's leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago, San Francisco, Minnesota, Phoenix, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Omaha, San Jose and Jacksonville symphony orchestras and the Buffalo Philharmonic. He has also conducted orchestras in Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Japan, Canada and Mexico.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Neal graduated from Yale University in 1975. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Annette Dieudonné in Paris, with Hugh Ross at the Manhattan School of Music and with Charles Bruck at both the Pierre Monteux School and the Hartt School of Music, where he was a Karl Böhm Fellow. It was at the Hartt School that he earned his Arts Diploma in Orchestral Conducting. He won the Second Prize at the 1984 Ernest Ansermet International Conducting Competition in Geneva and Third Prize in the 1986 Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition in New York.
At home in the pit as well as on stage, Neal has led productions for Dayton Opera, the Human Race Theatre Company, Syracuse Opera Company, Hartt Opera Theater, and for Milwaukee's renowned Skylight Opera Theatre. He has also conducted for the Milwaukee Ballet, Hartford Ballet, Chicago City Ballet, Ballet Arizona, and Theater Ballet of Canada.
Neal is nationally known for his Classical Connections programs, which provide a "behind the scenes” look at the great works of the orchestral repertoire. These innovative programs, which began in Milwaukee 22 years ago, have become a vital part of the Dayton Philharmonic's concert season.
His discography includes the a recording of the Dayton Philharmonic in performances of Tomas Svoboda's two piano concertos with Norman Krieger and the composer as featured soloists. Gittleman has also recorded a CD of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F with Krieger and the Czech National Symphony. Both recordings are available on the Artisie 4 label. The DPO's second CD, A Celebration of Flight released in 2003 as part of the celebration of the centennial of the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight. The orchestra’s most recent CD, of live archival performances from four eras, released in 2008 in conjunction with the DPO’s 75th anniversary.
When not on the podium, Neal is an avid player of golf, squash and t'ai chi ch'uan and has added yoga to his regimen. He and his wife, Lisa Fry, have been Dayton residents since 1997.
 Patrick Reynolds serves as Assistant Conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, conducting over two-dozen performances with the DPO each season. He has conducted the Philharmonic in Classical and Chamber subscription concerts, Pops, and summer concerts, as well as for the Miracle of Mozart Festival with pianist Jon Nakamatsu. During the 2007-2008 season, in addition to conducting the November/December Classical Series concerts, he will lead the DPO in Pops concerts with Art Garfunkel and Judy Collins. Each season, he conducts the Philharmonic in its Magic Carpet, SPARK (School Partners with Artists Reaching Kids) and Young People’s Concerts, reaching thousands of students across the Dayton metropolitan area.
Reynolds is in his eighth season as Conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, an organization selected from the area’s finest young musicians. Founded in 1937 by Paul Katz, the DPYO is one of the nation’s oldest youth orchestras and is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2007. Under Reynolds’ direction, the DPYO performs four concerts each season and was invited to perform at the 2002, 2004, and 2006 Ohio Music Education Association conferences. The DPYO also appears regularly on the DPO’s Family Concert Series, featuring collaborations with the Dayton Ballet II Senior Company, the Gem City Ballet, the South Dayton Ballet, performance artist Dan Kamin, the Magic Circle Mime Company, and illustrator Rob Shepperson.
Reynolds is a member of the faculty at the University of Dayton, where he conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and teaches courses in instrumental conducting.
Patrick Reynolds earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Michigan School of Music.
 Hank Dahlman is Professor of Music, Director of Choral Studies, and Director of Graduate Studies in Music at Wright State University, where he serves as the conductor of the WSU Collegiate Chorale and Chamber Singers. He serves as the Artistic and Musical Director of WSU's annual Madrigal Dinners and Holidays in the Heartland. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in conducting, music education, and music history.
Dahlman regularly appears as a guest conductor, presenter, or adjudicator at festivals and conferences at the international, national, and regional levels, and is the producer and host of VOICES, a radio program tracing the history, development, and current trends of the choral art heard weekly on Dayton Public Radio and on the web at www.dpr.org. He has served as an adjudicator at semi-final and final rounds of the National Student Conducting Competitions sponsored by the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and as one of four experts on conducting pedagogy featured at the first national convention of the National Collegiate Choral Organization. Dahlman's Choral Pronunciation Guide to Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, an industry standard, has seen use by universities and professional orchestras on five continents. His research writings and reviews have appeared in Choral Journal, Triad, ReSound, the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, and other professional journals and publications.
Director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus, Dahlman also serves as a guest conductor with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and founded the Dayton Philharmonic Chamber Choir in 2000. Dahlman conducted the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus in performance with professional orchestras, such as the Czech Chamber Philharmonic in Prague and at the Salzburg Cathedral celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday.
Dahlman presently serves as ACDA Central Division Chair for Youth and Student Activities. Prior service to the profession includes several divisional-, state-, and district-level positions with choral and music education associations in Florida and Ohio.
Dahlman holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Master of Music degree in choral conducting and literature from the University of South Florida, and the Bachelor of Music Education degree (magna cum laude) from Longwood University. Notable teachers have included Eph Ehly, James McCray, Rey Longyear, Wesley K. Morgan, Randall Pembrook, and Robert Summer.
Off the podium, Hank runs marathons and is an avid cyclist and golfer.
 The strongest assets Dr. Betsey Hofeldt brings to her job as Conductor of the
Dayton Philharmonic Junior String Orchestra are her artistic abilities.
Dr. Betsey Hofeldt received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from St. Olaf College in Minnesota in 1978 and her Master of Music degree in violin performance from the University of Illinois in Urbana in 1980 under the tutelage of Paul Rolland and Sergiu Luca. She earned her doctoral degree in violin performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2000, where her principal teachers were Naoko Tanaka and Won Bin Yim. Shirley Givens at the Aspen Music Festival is also one of her principal teachers.
Her chamber music teachers include the LaSalle Quartet, the Tokyo Quartet, James Tocco, Sandra Rivers at the Cincinnati Conservatory, Gabriel Magyar and Anne Epperson at the University of Illinois, Bernhard Goldschmidt and Richard Weiss (Cleveland Orchestra) at the Blossom Festival, and the Audubon String Quartet and Mark Johnson at the Audubon Seminar.
Since 1988, Dr. Hofeldt has been a member of the first violin section of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Prior to coming to the Dayton Philharmonic, Dr. Hofeldt performed with the Virginia Symphony (1987-1988), the Ohio Chamber Orchestra (1985-1987), the Toledo Symphony (1982-1985), and the Omaha Symphony (1981-1982).
She is a member of the Hofeldt Phillips Piano Trio, which formed in 1991. She performs with her husband, Mark, who is a cellist in the DPO, and Stephen Phillips, a pianist colleague whom she met in grad school at the Cincinnati Conservatory. The group plays much of the major piano trio repertoire and has given yearly recitals throughout the Miami Valley at the Dayton Art Institute; the University of Dayton; Miami University; Earlham College; the Music on the Avenue series in Covington, KY; Wright State University; and at the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Chamber Palooza.
Dr. Hofeldt has performed at the Aspen Music Festival (1980, 1991), the Ash Lawn Opera (1988), the Audubon Chamber Music Seminar (1986), the Blossom Chamber Music Festival (1985), the Cleveland Lyric Opera (1986-1987), and the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder (1983).
She is an active chamber musician throughout the Miami Valley, having performed at Earlham College, Miami University, the University of Dayton, and the Dayton Art Institute.
Dr. Hofeldt has always had an abiding interest in teaching violin and coaching chamber music. Her doctoral dissertation dissected the first of Suzuki's Violin Method Books and analyzed its technical elements. It was a labor of love, since Dr. Hofeldt loves analyzing musical and technical problems, finding a way to explain them to children, and then unlocking a door to help them express themselves better musically.
Her teaching, chamber coaching, and conducting experience includes
Oakwood Schools, 5th through 12th grades (2001 to present), Stivers School for the Arts (2002-2005), Miami Valley Academy (1994-1996), Earlham College (1994-1996), Cincinnati Conservatory as teaching assistant to Dr. Yim (1991-1993), Omaha Public Schools (1981-1982), and Northfield, MN Public Schools summer string programs (1978-1979).
Dr. Hofeldt is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and the American String Teachers Association.
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