Conductor James Ross is an improviser, a horn-blower, a questioner of concert rituals, a man who likes to move, and a firm believer in the shaping impact of classical music on the lives of those it touches. He is considered one of the finest conducting pedagogues in the country.  

He has taught conducting at the Juilliard School since 2011 and has led Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the USA as orchestra director since its founding in 2013. He served as professor and director of orchestral activities at the University of Maryland from 2001 to 2017. Mr. Ross has been music director of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra since 2018.  

 Mr. Ross is internationally recognized for his work advancing the future of orchestras through cross-genre collaborations especially with choreographer and MacArthur Fellow Liz Lerman, polymath designer-director Doug Fitch, and video artist Tim McLoraine. He was principal horn of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1981 to 1984 and was a prize winner at the Bavarian Radio Horn Competition in 1978 at age 19.   

He was artistic director of the National Orchestral Institute (NOI) at the University of Maryland from 2002 to 2012 where his leadership helped served as an impetus for creative change in the orchestral landscape of our country. Mr. Ross has also led inaugural courses of the Cuban American Youth Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s RCO Young. He has served on the music faculty of Yale University and Haverford and Bryn Mawr colleges.  

Mr. Ross’s principal conducting teachers were Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, and Otto-Werner Mueller with whom he studied at Curtis from 1987 to 1989. He holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a Master’s Certificate from the Berlin Academy of the Arts.  

Mr. Ross loves art that is new no matter when it was created. He loves concerts that tell a compelling inner story. And he loves helping conductors and orchestras find their own singular communal voices.  

Mr. Ross joined the Curtis faculty in 2024.

A sought-after and multifaceted artist, Nicholas Canellakis has forged a unique voice combining his talents as soloist, chamber musician, curator, filmmaker, and composer/arranger.

Recent concert highlights include concerto appearances with the Virginia, Albany, Delaware, Stamford, Richardson, Lansing, and Bangor symphonies, the Erie Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now, the New Haven Symphony as artist-in-residence, and the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall. He performs recitals throughout the United States with his longtime duo collaborator, pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown, and recent appearances have included Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Four Arts in Palm Beach, New Orleans Friends of Chamber Music, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and Wolf Trap near Washington D.C.

Mr. Canellakis is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, with which he performs regularly in Alice Tully Hall and on tour internationally, including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Louvre in Paris, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, and the Shanghai and Taipei National Concert Halls. He is also a regular guest artist at many of the world’s leading music festivals, including Santa Fe, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Bard, Bridgehampton, La Jolla, Moab, Chamberfest Cleveland, and Music in the Vineyards. He was recently renewed as the artistic director of Chamber Music Sedona in Arizona, where he has made a major impact through his dynamic programming and educational and community outreach.

Mr. Canellakis’ latest album (b)romance, featuring some of his original compositions and arrangements, was released by First Hand Records in 2023 and has received over one million streams on Apple Music.

Filmmaking and acting are special interests of Mr. Canellakis. He has produced, directed, and starred in several short films and music videos, including his popular comedy web series Conversations with Nick Canellakis. His latest films Thin Walls and My New Cello were nominated for awards at many prominent film festivals and are currently available to stream online.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music (’06) and New England Conservatory, his teachers included Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley, and Paul Katz, and he was a student of Madeleine Golz at Manhattan School of Music Pre-College.

Mr. Canellakis plays an outstanding cello by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, from 1840. He joined the Curtis Institute of Music faculty in 2024.

Yumi Kendall is a distinguished cellist, classical music ambassador, and changemaker, whose voice and vision are paving the way for future generations.

Since 2004, Ms. Kendall has been a dedicated and deeply active member of The Philadelphia Orchestra as assistant principal cello. She won the position at age 22, during her final year of studies at the Curtis Institute of Music. Over the past two decades, as a performer and pedagogue, Ms. Kendall has inspired, informed, and connected countless people as a passionate proponent of classical music. More recently, as a speaker, podcaster, and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) degree program, she has catalyzed conversations to help people and organizations thrive.

As an orchestral and chamber musician, Ms. Kendall has played on many of the world’s prominent stages, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, Suntory Hall, and Musikverein. She has performed with the Marlboro Festival and tour, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and has been featured as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 2013, she was selected by the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Music and Artistic Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin to receive the Orchestra’s C. Hartman Kuhn Award—given to “the member of The Philadelphia Orchestra who has shown ability and enterprise of such character as to enhance the standards and the reputation of The Philadelphia Orchestra.” She holds a Philadelphia Orchestra chair established for her in 2022 by supporters Elaine Woo Camarda and A. Morris Williams Jr.

Since graduating from UPenn with a MAPP degree in 2017, Ms. Kendall has appeared as a guest presenter and facilitator at conferences, retreats, and other events across various professional fields. Captivating as both a cellist and speaker, she is known for her authenticity, ebullience, and approachable style in communicating about classical music. Exemplifying her role as a changemaker, in 2023 Ms. Kendall launched the Tacet No More podcast with her longtime friend, Philadelphia Orchestra colleague Joseph Conyers. Their podcast raises provocative yet optimistic inquiries intended to shake up the status quo and reimagine the next era of classical music. To date, the podcast has featured an array of pioneering guests from across sectors.

Ms. Kendall is a 2004 graduate of Curtis and joined the faculty in 2024.

Christine Jeonghyoun Lee joined the cello section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in August 2023. Renowned for her unrelenting curiosity, Ms. Lee is an exceptionally versatile artist regularly performing as both soloist and chamber musician.

Among her many competition triumphs, Ms. Lee won first prize in the International Isang Yun Competition and was a top laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Her inaugural album, Voyage, was released in May 2021 on the label Outhere. With this album, she invites her listeners to embark on a journey of self-discovery and cultural exchange, building bridges through her musical expression. She launched Christine’s Notes on YouTube and conducts live interviews with leading musicians of her generation on Instagram with the aim of revitalizing classical music’s relevance in contemporary society. As the artistic director of the “We’ve got your Bach” project during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, she facilitated the creation and performance of music online, providing solace and comfort to people in need.

Dedicated to using her musical talents for the benefit of her community, Ms. Lee has organized charity concerts and fundraisers, fostering a sense of togetherness through music. Among her recent endeavors, she raised funds for building a mobile library for underprivileged children in North Philadelphia, a community close to her heart.

A 2013 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, she joined the faculty in 2024.

Mariana is a conductor, vocalist, and composer from Mexico City. She grew up in both State College, Pennsylvania and Morelia, Michoacán, where her family currently resides.

Mariana is a Conducting Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music studying with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Jim Ross and assisting various orchestras and Curtis Opera productions. Learn more

Acclaimed for its “otherworldly ensemble and professional level of sophistication” (New York Times), the Curtis Symphony Orchestra offers a dynamic showcase of tomorrow’s exceptional young talent. Each year the 100 extraordinary musicians of the orchestra work with internationally renowned conductors, including Osmo Vänskä, Vladimir Jurowski, Marin Alsop, Simon Rattle, Robert Spano, and Yannick Nézet Séguin, who also mentors the early-career conductors who hold Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellowships. This professional training has enabled Curtis alumni to assume prominent positions in America’s leading orchestras, as well as esteemed orchestral, opera, and chamber ensembles around the world.