Conductors

Mitchell Sardou Klein is Music Director of the Peninsula Symphony and the Peninsula Youth Orchestra and a frequent guest conductor of orchestras in the United States and abroad. Maestro Klein is a winner of many prestigious awards with decades of experience in the U.S. and abroad. His innumerable honors include the 2000 ASCAP Award for Programming of American Music on Foreign Tour, the 1993 Bravo Award for his contribution to the Bay Area's cultural life, and a 1996 award for the year's best television performance program in the Western States for a PBS special about him and the Peninsula Symphony.

In addition to his work with the Peninsula Symphony, Maestro Klein has spent almost 20 years as the Director of the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, which is named after his father, a famed cellist. Held in San Francisco each June, the Competition has become one of the most prominent in the world, featuring a first place prize of $10,000, attracting applicants from more than twenty nations annually. The Klein Competition has launched numerous major international careers of artists such as Alyssa Park, Wendy Warner, and Mark Kosower.

Maestro Klein has appeared on the podiums of such orchestras as the New Polish Philharmonic, San Jose Symphony, Seattle Symphony and many others. Cited for his "keen judgment, tight orchestral discipline, feeling for tempo, and unerring control", Maestro Klein has appeared frequently on national and international broadcasts, including National Public Radio, the Voice of America, the WFMT Fine Arts Network, and PBS Television.

Geoffrey Gallegos begins his fourth season as Assistant Conductor of the Peninsula Symphony. Additionally he serves as the Music Director and Conductor of the Kensington Symphony in the East Bay and continues as Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra. A San Francisco native and sixth generation Californian, his extensive ties to the San Francisco music community began at age nine when he studied trumpet with members of the San Francisco Symphony. Following advanced studies in orchestral and operatic conducting, he began his conducting career with the San Francisco Chamber Players Orchestra. Guest conducting has taken Mr. Gallegos throughout the United States and Europe including appearances with the Budapest Philharmonic and members of the Hungarian State Opera.

In 2003, Mr. Gallegos was appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Golden Gate Opera (Marin) and has conducted productions of Pagliacci, Gianni Schicchi, The Telephone, Madama Butterfly and Carmen. His deep commitment to arts education in the Bay Area, particularly as Music Director and Conductor of the Golden Gate Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in San Francisco, mirrors a focus of the Peninsula Symphony. This season, Mr. Gallegos will again conduct our April 2006 Family Concert (April Fools) and will appear with the Peninsula Symphony throughout the season.