SEAN NEWHOUSE recently began his second season as Music Director and Conductor of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. He is the recipient of the YMF Conducting Grant and the BMI Foundation, Inc. Lionel Newman Conducting Study Grant. Winner of YMF's 2005 National Conductor Search, he follows in the footsteps of such alumni YMF conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Lawrence Foster, Myung-Whun Chung, Lucas Richman, Jung-Ho Pak, and Daniel Hege. Newhouse has recently been named to one of three prestigious conducting fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center for the 2007 summer season, where he will conduct the renowned TMC Orchestra and be mentored by James Levine and Stefan Asbury.

In 2006, he made his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra to critical acclaim. Additional debuts in 2006 included the Milwaukee Symphony and Aspen Concert Orchestra. In 2005, he was selected as the winner of the Aspen Conducting Prize and named Assistant Conductor to the Aspen Music Festival and School Music Director David Zinman for the 2006 season. In 2004, at the invitation of Michael Tilson Thomas, he debuted with the New World Symphony, sharing the podium with Maestro Tilson Thomas for a pair of subscription concerts. Newhouse has also conducted the National Symphony Orchestra, as part of the National Conducting Institute under the guidance of Leonard Slatkin.

Highlights of 2005-2006 with the Debut Orchestra included a nationally televised holiday concert and a performance for the President and First Lady, as well as a collaboration with the Angel City Chorale and actress Toni Trucks for William Grant Still's landmark work Lenox Avenue. The season concluded with the Debut Orchestra's first performance of a complete Mahler symphony in decades and a special invited performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, for the American Symphony Orchestra League National Conference. Newhouse has served as guest cover conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic on a number of occasions, assisting Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and guest conductors.

Sean Newhouse studied at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and the Pierre Monteux School, among others. His conducting mentors have included David Zinman, Jorge Mester, Carl Topilow, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Neil Varon. Originally trained as a violinist, his teachers included Devy Erlih at the Alfred Cortot School in Paris and Joanna Owen at the Eastman School.

04/07