Benoit Gauthier is a Canadian conductor acclaimed for the intensity and depth of his interpretations. In 2024, he received the prestigious Jean-Marie-Beaudet Prize in Conducting from the Canada Council for the Arts. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he served as a Conducting Fellow, Gauthier refined his craft under world-renowned mentors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Ford Mylius Lallerstedt, Jim Ross, Robert Spano, Michael Stern, Noah Bendix-Balgley, and Yuja Wang. His exceptional artistry and communicative presence—recognized by both colleagues and faculty—led to his appointment to the Conducting Faculty at Curtis in a newly created position designed specifically for him.

Committed to community engagement, Gauthier founded the Orchestre symphonique de la Côte-Nord (OSCN) at the age of sixteen, in the only region of Québec that had no professional orchestra at the time. Now a recognized institution, the OSCN performs major symphonic works (The Rite of Spring, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, and a Beethoven cycle from 2023 to 2025) and creates tours adapted to the vast geography of the region (Affluence with the Orchestre du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean in 2022, Un vent de renouveau in 2023).

German-American conductor Dirk Meyer is Music Director of the Augusta Symphony, the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, and the Lyric Opera of the North.

Meyer has guest conducted orchestras like the Toronto Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, Symphoria, as well as the Edmonton Symphony and the Sarasota Orchestra. Meyer is first prize winner of The American Prize in conducting and recipient of the Arts & Culture Initiative Award in Minnesota.

Through the creation of new concert experiences that range from multimedia to adventurous collaborations, Meyer brings classical music to new audiences. With the Augusta Symphony Meyer recorded five previously unrecorded works by Uruguayan-American composer Miguel del Aguila, in collaboration with peermusic Classical and released on Albany Records. The next recording with this ensemble will feature music by American composers James Lee III and Amy Beach.

Maestro Meyer is also the author of “Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble Repertoire. A Catalog of Modern Music”. Additionally, he has conducted in countries like South Africa, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Bulgaria. Assistantships have led him to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Germany), the Vienna State Opera (Austria) and the Teatro Real in Madrid (Spain). Meyer holds graduate degrees from Michigan State University, and Bachelor’s Degrees from the Folkwang Conservatory in Germany.

Duo Shen is Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and associate conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony. During his three seasons with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Shen curated and conducted over 90 performances, spanning masterworks and chamber concert series, family and educational concerts, film/pop productions and run-out concerts. His 2024–25 season highlights included a subscription debut at DeVos Performance Hall with double bass virtuoso Joseph Conyers that was praised for its artistry and energy.

Shen has served as assistant conductor to esteemed conductors such as Marcelo Lehninger, JoAnn Falletta, Carlos Kalmar, Vinay Parameswaran, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Ruth Reinhardt, Tianyi Lu, Nicholas McGegan, David Robertson and Robert Spano. In 2022, immediately upon graduation, he was hired as a staff conductor at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he served as prep-conductor and cover conductor for guest artists while also leading subscription concerts. Additionally, Shen has been a cover conductor for the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

Shen holds a professional studies diploma in orchestral conducting from CIM, a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin from the University of Maryland, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Delaware.

Known for adventurous musicality and a captivating stage presence, Filipino-American conductor IAN PASSMORE enjoys a rich career as an orchestral leader and pedagogue. Hailed as “a rising young conductor” by Fanfare magazine, his unapologetically Romantic performances of the standard repertoire harken back to a bygone generation of conductors.

Following his October 2025 return guest engagement with the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, Ian was immediately appointed Artistic Director of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association and Music Director-Designate of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra. He assumes the Music Directorship in July 2026. During the 25-26 season, Ian returned to conduct a pair of programs with Tennessee’s Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, and held for a second year the position of Interim Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra and Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony Youth Camerata. He also conducted a holiday performance of “Cirque de Noël” with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, led a program with Montana’s Great Falls Symphony and conducted performances of the wildly popular “Stardew Valley Symphony of Seasons” show in eight major U.S. cities.

Following two seasons as the Omaha Symphony’s Assistant Conductor, in 2019 the orchestra named Mr. Passmore its Associate Conductor – a position never before created in its 100-year history. Ian has also led programs with the Buffalo and Louisiana philharmonics, the symphony orchestras of Anderson, Charlotte, Delaware, Greensboro, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Lincoln, North Carolina, Oak Ridge, Salisbury and Winston-Salem, the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra and Vietnam’s Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra. During the 2024-25 season, he held an appointment as Interim Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony’s Youth Orchestra and Youth Camerata, a position that has been renewed for the 2025-26 season. He also led the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra’s 2025 holiday performances of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, with Charlotte Ballet.