Charles Peltz

Mr. Peltz is currently the Director of Wind Ensembles at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Music Director of the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra. He was formerly a staff conductor with both the Syracuse Symphony and the Buffalo Opera Company. In recent seasons his guest conducting has included acclaimed appearances in the Lincoln Center Festival in New York, regular guest conducting with the Orquesta Nacional in Bogota, Colombia and with the Cross Border Youth Orchestra of Ireland. Recent opera performances were with the Boston Academy of Music. Orchestral concerts on Long Island include performances with the Merrick Symphony where he serves as principal guest conductor. Past seasons have included appearances with the Pacific Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, New Jersey Ballet, Delaware Valley Philharmonic and numerous concerts with the North American New Music Festival. Mr. Peltz records, to critical praise, on the MODE label, which has six recordings of his work in their catalog. One of these recordings won a prestigious “Palm d’or” award in France.

As an award winning educator, Mr. Peltz has held positions at Harvard, Ithaca College and SUNY at Buffalo. His tenure as music director of the Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra brought notoriety to that group for its work with world renowned composers including Lukas Foss, Joan Tower, Michael Colgrass, Augusta Read Thomas, Chou Wen Chung and Karel Husa. He is also a frequent conductor of youth festival orchestras and bands and is the Director of Orchestras at the Luzerne Music Center summer music school.

Mr. Peltz holds a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he graduated with distinction in performance and highest academic honors, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College where he studied with marimba virtuoso Gordon Stout. His teachers include Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music Festival, Frank Battisti, Pamela Gearhart, Richard Woitach, and Donald Hunsberger.