Jonathan Strasser, Music Director of the InterSchool Orchestras since 1979 and conductor of the ISO Symphony, has guided the growth of the organization from two small ensembles to five orchestras, a symphonic band, percussion workshop, a chamber music program, and an outreach commitment to schools throughout New York City. As a conductor, violinist, and educator for some of New York's finest learning institutions and performing organizations, he has enriched the lives of countless youngsters and their families. Mr. Strasser has both bachelor's and master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. He studied violin with Stanley Bednar; conducting with Anton Coppola and Nicolas Flagello; and chamber music with Lillian Fuchs and the Tokyo String Quartet. In 1968 he began a 29-year teaching career at the High School of Music and Art, the School of Performing Arts,and F.H. LaGuardia High School of Music, Art, and Performing Arts, where he conducted the "senior" orchestra and taught a myriad of related subjects. From 1969 through 1992, Mr. Strasser was a conductor of New York's High School All-City Orchestra,first as assistant conductor, and then for ten years as Music Director. For four summers he performed and conducted at Nicolas Flagello's Festivale Musicale di Salerno on the Amalfi coast of Italy. He was a member of the Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra from 1965-1980 as concertmaster and assistant conductor, and made his official New York conducting debut at Avery Fisher Hall with the orchestra in December 1978. Mr. Strasser has conducted in Europe, Taiwan, and South America, where he is a regular guest conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica Venezuela in Caracas. He has worked with renowned soloists including Janos Starker, Artur Balsam, James Earl Jones, the McDermott Trio, Eugene Drucker, and singers from the Metropolitan and New York City operas. In 1997, Mr. Strasser was appointed Music Director of the Staten Island Symphony. Currently, he also serves on the faculty of the Precollege Division of the Manhattan School of Music, where he teaches violin, conducting, and chamber music since 1977, and conducts the Manhattan Philharmonic. He recently conducted two critically acclaimed performances of The Piper of Hamelin by Nicolas Flagello, a CD of which is available of Newport Classic. On TV and in home video he can be seen as the conductor in the MGM movie Fame.

Todd Doan is in his second season as conductor for the Carnegie Hill Orchestra. In addition to his commitment to ISO, he is also the Conductor for the Norwalk Youth Symphony's Philharmonia Orchestra in Connecticut. In previous years, Mr. Doan was on the conducting staff with the New Jersey Youth Symphony and Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra. As a music educator, he is teaching elementary strings to inner-city students at Speedway Avenue School in the Newark Public Schools, NJ. In past years, he was the Director of Orchestral Activities at Cranford Public Schools (NJ) for three years and at Winter Park High School (FL) for five years. His orchestras have consistently received Superior ratings at the district and state festivals. In 2005, he guest conducted the Central Jersey Intermediate Region II Orchestra. Professionally, Mr. Doan is an active member of the American Symphony Orchestra League, where he was selected as participant in the Donald Thulean Conducting Workshop in Atlanta, GA in 2004. Mr. Doan holds degrees in Music Education and Orchestral Conducting from the University of South Florida with a performance concentration on both oboe and viola. He was born in Vietnam, but was raised in Tampa, Florida and now resides in Jersey City, New Jersey. Email: Mr. Todd Doan

ISO Alum (’86) Robert L. Johnston began his association with ISO in 1985, as principal bassist of what is now the ISO Symphony. When not directing the Morningside and ISO at Turtle Bay Orchestras, he is Director of String Studies at St. Francis Preparatory School , guiding a program that includes three orchestras and beginner classes consistently numbering over 150 students. This season alone will see Mr. Johnston conducting over 20 events featuring Prep Orchestras. Mr. Johnston’s ensembles (as well as some of his arrangements and compositions) have appeared on Good Day New York, Nickelodeon, and The Prayer Channel. His students have performed for the Queens Borough President, officials from the United Nations, the Bishops of Brooklyn and Rockville Center, and this April, countless dignitaries, including His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI. Mr. Johnston was graduated from The Manhattan School of Music with undergraduate and graduate degrees in Classical Performance, where he also earned the Pablo Casals Award for Musical Accomplishment and Human Endeavor. He went on to earn a Masters of Arts degree in Teaching Music from Lehman College. His professional engagements as a bassist include The New Philharmonic of New Jersey and The Magic Circle Opera Repertory Company, for whom he recorded on the Newport Classics label. He has performed with artists ranging from Peter Serkin and Leon Fleisher to John Faddis and Gunther Schuller. Mr. Johnston studied bass with Orin O’Brien (New York Philharmonic) and Donald Palma (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra), and conducting with Paul Dunkel (American Composer’s Orchestra), Anthony Maiello (George Mason University) and Robert F. Swift (Plymouth State College). Email: Mr. Robert Johnston

Eugene Minor, a Los Angeles native, began conducting youth orchestras while still in high school. After attending Los Angeles City College, Mr. Minor helped found the Los Angeles Savoy Artes Opera Company where he served as General Artistic Director and conductor. On the East Coast he became conductor of the Bergen Youth Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and assistant conductor of the Greater Trenton Symphony. He conducted the world premiere of his reconstruction of the lost Gilbert and Sullivan opera Thespis. More recently, he conducted the world premiere of Louis Spohr's Tenth Symphony at Carnegie Hall. He assisted Leonard Slatkin with the New York Philharmonic and co-conducted the New York premiere of Donald Erb's Prismatic Variations. He has written two symphonies along with many other works, several of which have been published. Mr. Minor is currently on the conducting staff of the InterSchool Orchestras of New York.

Brian P. Worsdale is now entering his 11th season as the founder and conductor of the ISO Symphonic Band. Started as a training ensemble, this group has turned into one of the finest wind ensembles in the New York area. It performs throughout New York City and has been given high marks by the city’s musical elite. In addition Mr. Worsdale serves as the associate conductor of the organization's Symphony Orchestra. He began his conducting studies under the tutelage of his mentor and friend Maestro Jonathan Strasser while enrolled at the pre-college division of the Manhattan School of Music. Through the ISO, Mr. Worsdale also became involved with the conducting roundtables with the New York Philharmonic. In 1998 Mr. Worsdale accepted his first teaching assignment at PS 41 in Greenwich Village. In 2001, was appointed director of brass bands for St. Hilda’s and St. Hugh’s School. Currently, Mr. Worsdale is director of music for Visitation Academy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. There he has started the first all-girl British-Brass Band program in the U.S. Mr. Worsdale also serves as the Director of Music of the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts in Delaware County, New York. There he leads the symphony orchestra and numerous pit orchestras while overseeing the music program for one of the largest and most diverse performing arts camps in the world. Mr. Worsdale has worked with a wide variety of artists including James Adler, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Julie Wilson, Graham Ashton, Marcus Rojas and members of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He is a lifetime member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society for his work with student musicians and is a member of both the Music Educators National Conference and the New York State School Music Association.

Yoon Jae Lee, Director of Chamber Music, enjoys a multi-faceted career as a conductor, arranger, and pianist. He is the Founder & Artistic Director of Ensemble 212, a New York-based orchestra, Resident Conductor at the Strings International Music Festival, and on faculty at the C.W. Post Chamber Music Festival at Long Island University. As guest conductor, he has conducted the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, the Bruckner Orchester Linz, and the Espresso Opera in a production of Verdi's Otello. Mr. Lee has made highly acclaimed chamber versions of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Mahler's Symphony No. 4. Following the September 11 tragedy, he orchestrated the theme song "New York, New York" for a special benefit concert for St. Paul's Chapel in lower Manhattan at Salzburg's Cathedral (Dom). Previously, Mr. Lee served as Associate Conductor of Youth Symphony for United Nations, Assistant Conductor to the Salzburger Kammerphilharmonie, and the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra.

A native of New York City, Mr. Lee began his musical studies on the violin at age 5 and started the piano a year later. He played in the ISO Symphony throughout high school and studied violin, viola, and conducting with Jonathan Strasser. At age 17, he began conducting and just 2 years later, participated in a masterclass with Kurt Masur at Alice Tully Hall. He received his degrees in piano and conducting from the Mannes College of Music, graduating as the recipient of the N.T. Milani Memorial Conducting Fellowship and the Peter M. Gross Fund. Mr. Lee also attended the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria where he studied with Dennis Russell Davies. Mr. Lee has participated in many festivals and workshops such as the Donald Thulean workshops held by the American Symphony Orchestra League, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival's American Academy of Conducting, where he studied with David Zinman, Murry Sidlin, and conducted a staged performance of Benjamin Britten's, "The Turn of the Screw". Noted conductors he has studied with include Samuel Wong, David Hayes, and Michael Charry.

E-mail Yoon Jae Lee at chamber@isorch.org.

Nora Stanton Gibson , Executive Director, is an outstanding administrator, teacher and musician with an impressive career in arts management and education. She returns to New York City from Minneapolis, where she was the Founding Executive Director of the Saint Paul Conservatory of Music, a community music school with a faculty of 40 and an enrollment of over 500 students. Before going to the Twin Cities, Ms. Gibson was chair of the Music Department at the Marymount School. She holds an MM - Piano Performance from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, and a BA - Early Childhood Development from Washington International College, Washington, DC.
Email Nora Gibson at ngibson@isorch.org.

Samuel Lowry, Marketing and Development Manager,
E-mail Sam Lowry at slowry@isorch.org.

Gary Tigner, Program Associate,
E-mail Gary Tigner at gtigner@isorch.org.

Born and raised in the wilds of New York City Beverly Simon is a long time associate of ISO as well as an alumni. She graduated with a BA in Music from Hunter College and completed advanced study in both modern and Baroque viola at the Birmingham Conservatoire in England. Ms. Simon is certified from New York's prestigious School for Strings to teach Suzuki violin, as well as Suzuki viola. In addition to her work at ISO, she also currently teaches at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, where she was one of the co-founders of their Suzuki program.
E-mail Beverly Simon at bsimon@isorch.org.