Conductor Julien Benichou currently serves as Music Director of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Chesapeake
Youth Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the New Music Ensemble at Towson University. Previous positions have
included Assistant Conductor of the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, Acting Music Director of the Johns Hopkins Medical School Choir
and Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Skokie Symphony Orchestra, the Columbia Orchestra and director of the Pre-College Chamber
Orchestra at Juilliard. Mr. Benichou's guest conducting opportunities have included the Annapolis Symphony, the Londontowne
Symphony and the North Shore Chamber orchestras.
Before coming to the United States in 1995 for graduate study with Gustav Meier
at the Peabody Conservatory, Mr. Benichou held positions in his native France leading choral ensembles in Martigues, Berre and Montmartre.
Further studies were at the Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory where he studied conducting with Jean-Sebastien Bereau. He received
a diploma in harmony and counterpoint from La Schola Cantorum in Paris and was the recipient of several awards.
Julien
Benichou received a graduate performance diploma from Peabody Conservatory and during that time interned as assistant conductor of
the Baltimore Opera Company. He earned a master's degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University under Victor Yampolsky,
and did further graduate studies at Yale University with Lawrence Leighton Smith. Among the conductors with whom he has participated
in master classes are Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, Jorma Panula and JoAnn Falletta. At
the Hot Springs Music Festival Mr. Benichou received a fellowship as assistant conductor and the following summer as associate conductor.
Mr.
Benichou has a special interest in new music and has led commissions, premieres and a recording on the Centaur label. He has
also written and conducted the sound track for a recent film. Another strong interest is music education. Mr. Benichou has taken
the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra on two European tours and in the summer of 2008 traveled with fifteen music students to the
Chaillol Festival in France where he led them in performances of classical and baroque repertoire. In the fall of 2009, he conducted
performances of Gounod’s Faust with Baltimore Concert Opera. In the spring of 2010 he will be guest conducting for the Calpoly All
State Symphony Orchestra in California.
For further information please contact:
Julien Benichou
julien@jhu.edu