Introducing our Guest Conductors
Following the retirement of Maestro Kellogg, five concerts of our 2024-2025 Season will be led by one of these Guest Conductors. Associate Conductor Nicholas Ross will conduct December's Sounds of the Season Concert.
Learn more about each of them by reading the profiles below.
Meet Janna Hymes
Renowned for her inspiring performances, musical depth and energetic presence, Janna Hymes has developed a reputation as an exciting, detailed communicator. Praised by the press as “an architect, a builder in sound, a conductor with an overall view who never misses details,” Janna has served as Artistic Director of the Sedona Symphony since 2023. Previously she held the same title for 6 years with the Carmel (IN) Symphony and for 15 years was Music Director of the Williamsburg (VA) Symphony.
Janna brings orchestras to the forefront of the community by programming unique and varied concerts. Her programs push through the conventional concert experience by focusing on performances which leave the audience wanting more. She has a sensibility which allows her to pair traditional orchestral music with something unexpected, resulting in a fresh concert experience.
Recent performance highlights include concerts with the Symphony Orchestras of West Virginia, Savannah, Greenville (SC), Roanoke, and Portland (ME); serving as Artist in Residence at Colby College; leading the Williamsburg Symphony on its first international tour, and several seasons guest conducting at the Sewanee Music Festival (TN).
Among the orchestras with which Janna has appeared are those in Houston, Indianapolis, Oregon, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Hartford, Madison, Stamford, Harrisburg, Spokane, Richmond, Springfield, Bozeman, Canton, Chappaqua Chamber, Bangor and Omaha, as well as the San Francisco Women’s Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Florida Orchestra. Internationally, she has led the Costa Rica National Symphony on numerous occasions along with many tours with the Delta Ensemble of Holland, the National Orchestre de Lyon, Besancon Chamber Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico.
Janna is the proud recipient of several prestigious awards including a Geraldine C. and Emory M. Ford Foundation Grant; a top prize of the International Conducting Competition in Besancon, France; a distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and she is the recipient of a Fulbright Award.
Meet Kayoko Dan
Kayoko Dan recently completed a 13-season tenure as the Music Director of the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, a position held since 2011. Previously, she served as the Assistant Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony and Music Director of Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras. She has been awarded the Karajan Fellowship for Young Conductors, as well as the David Effron Conducting Fellowship at the Chautauqua Institute.
Ms. Dan has participated in numerous workshops including the Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar, International Bartok Festival,
Fondazione I Pomeriggi Musicali Conducting Workshop and National Conducting Institute.
As a strong advocate of music education, Ms. Dan serves as the Director of Orchestral Studies at Sam Houston State University. She is in demand as a clinician at universities, All-State, high schools, youth orchestras, and regional orchestras throughout the country. She has taught at several elementary schools including Thomas J. Pappas school for homeless children in Arizona as an ArtsBridge Scholar.
While serving as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, her dedication and passion for music education was recognized by the Graduate Teaching Excellence Award from Arizona State University. Additionally, she is a frequent guest speaker at university conducting classes to encourage young conductors who are pursuing a career in music.
Born in Japan and raised in the United States, music has been an integral part of Ms. Dan's life since an early age. She received a Bachelor in Music Education at the University of Texas, and her Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting and Master in Music Education from Arizona State University. Her principal teachers are Timothy Russell and Timothy Muffitt. She has also studied with Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, Zoltan Pesko, Jorma Panula, and William Reber.
Meet Daniel Wiley
Daniel Wiley has quickly become a notable young conductor on the rise, having made appearances with the Cincinnati Symphony, Cincinnati Ballet, Minnesota Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Toledo Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, Quad City Ballet, Salisbury Symphony, Orchestra Indiana, Butler County Philharmonic, Anderson Symphony, Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Abridged Opera, London Symphonia, Boise Philharmonic, Abilene Philharmonic, Denali Chamber Orchestra, Meridian Symphony, Equilibrium Ensemble (Italy), and the University of North Florida Opera.
Daniel currently holds posts with the Cincinnati Symphony as Assistant Conductor, the Kansas City Symphony as Associate Conductor, and the Salisbury Symphony as Music Director. Daniel has also held posts with the Jacksonville Symphony, Windsor Symphony, and Meridian Symphony. In April of 2024, Daniel stepped in on short notice to make his Cincinnati Symphony subscription debut featuring Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Brahm’s Violin Concerto with Agustin Hadelich. Daniel took over this program “seamlessly and intelligently and brought out the best in the orchestras musicians” – Cincinnati Business Courier.
In 2020, Daniel created a digital education concert series with the Windsor Symphony that includes 12 hours of interactive music curriculum for schools. This program has been lauded as “an exemplar of impassioned and outstanding pedagogy” (Dr. Ken Montgomery, Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Windsor) and recognized by the Ontario Provincial Parliament for its successes connecting students with music during the pandemic. This program has now engaged more than 200,000 students across North America.
In 2019, Daniel was a prize recipient of both the Smoky Mountain International Conducting Institute and Competition and the Los Angeles International Conducting Competition and has spent time conducting new music ensembles, including the Composing in the Wilderness program as part of the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska. Through this program, Daniel has conducted numerous world premieres in Denali National Park.
Meet Michael Stanley
Michael Stanley is a multi-talented conductor and instrumentalist based in Southern California, who has performed in such world-renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and UCLA’s Royce Hall. As a conductor his performances have garnered outstanding reviews, with the Los Angeles Times proclaiming that “…[his] ensemble performed beautifully.” He is currently the Music Director and Conductor of the Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra and the Westlake Village Symphony.
Mr. Stanley has conducted both nationally and internationally, including leading the prestigious Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra at the finals of the 2019 Christopher Parkening International Guitar Competition.
As an advocate for new music, he has commissioned, premiered, and conducted numerous compositions in a variety of genres, including the West Coast premiere of Eric Ewazen’s Concertino for Organ and Orchestra and the North American premiere of Joshua Idio’s Legacy, written to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
As a concerto conductor, he has collaborated with such notables as David Singer, former principal clarinet of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and supports the development of talented young soloists through his work with the Hennings-Fischer Young Artist Competition.
Mr. Stanley is a devoted music educator who provides musical opportunities to young people from diverse communities through his work as a conductor and Young Musicians Foundation teaching artist. He has designed and led successful education concerts for students from elementary through high school. He also seeks to nurture the next generation of conducting talent through the Burbank Philharmonic’s Discovery Conductor Project, a unique program for high school-age conductors which provides mentoring and culminates in a performance with a professional symphony orchestra.
As an instrumentalist, Mr. Stanley continues to perform on French horn in regional orchestras throughout Southern California. He holds degrees in performance and conducting from UCLA, California State University, Long Beach and Claremont Graduate University.
Meet Alex Amsel
Argentinian-Mexican conductor, Alex Amsel, has quickly established himself as a conductor equally at home on the orchestral and operatic podium, and as a music educator for students of all ages. Amsel’s hope is to integrate music into the fabric of every community he works with to reshape how we think about society and our place in it.
In the 2023-2024 season, Amsel joined The Phoenix Symphony as Associate Conductor where he led classical and outreach
concerts, in addition he was appointed the John L. Magro Chair of Resident Conductor for the Cincinnati Opera. He joined the Houston Grand Opera as Resident Conductor for the 2022-2023 season and led productions of Verdi’s La traviata as well as being Music Director and Conductor for the world-premiere of Jeremy Howard-Beck’s Another City.
Additional debut engagements in 2023-24 included performances with Cincinnati Symphony and Opera, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, a tour with West Virginia Symphony and serving as Music Director and Conductor for University of North Texas’ production of Massanet’s Cendrillon.
Amsel has been lauded for his “vibrant and textured performances maintaining superb balance so its many intricacies came through…punctuating a dynamic performance” (Chicago Classical Review). Other recent engagements include Assistant Conductor with L'orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Enescu Philharmonic.
Amsel holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Peabody Conservatory studying under the tutelage of Marin Alsop, and has worked closely with Cristian Mǎcelaru, Jane Glover, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Tito Muñoz.