The Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra Board of Directors is pleased to announce Gerardo Edelstein as our organization’s new Music Director beginning August 1, 2023. After a thoughtful and strategic succession process and the vetting of highly talented applicants, Mr. Edelstein was selected to lead the PCO in the coming years.
Maestro Edelstein comes to PCO with a stunning music pedigree, limitless energy, and an innate drive for advancing classical music in the central Pennsylvania region. His global musical diversity coupled with his desire to honor masterpieces, embrace new music, and introduce modern technologies position him perfectly to excite all who experience the orchestra.
A native of Argentina, Edelstein, is currently Penn State’s Director of Orchestral Studies, Music Director of the Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestras, and Music Director of the Penn’s Woods Music Festival. In addition, he has been the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra Music Director/Conductor for the past 13 years. Maestro Edelstein has guest-conducted orchestras and choirs internationally and nationally in Israel, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Ireland, Germany, Turkey, France, Russia, Argentina, Texas, Michigan, Virginia, Vermont, New York, Colorado, and across Pennsylvania. Prior to his appointment at Penn State, Edelstein was Associate Conductor and Music Advisor of the Richmond Symphony, which won first prize for innovative music programming awarded by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
Edelstein graduated with high honors in Piano from the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires. He studied choral conducting at the J. J. Castro Conservatory of La Lucila in Argentina and at the Bachakademie in Stuttgart, Germany. Mr. Edelstein received an Artist Diploma in orchestral conducting from the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music in Israel where he won the Leonard Bernstein Conducting Scholarship. He completed a master’s degree in orchestral conducting at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. His teachers include Mendi Rodan, Helmuth Rilling, and Larry Rachleff.
Maestro Edelstein has embraced his new role stating, “I can’t wait to get working on the 23/24 season with the orchestra’s wonderful musicians, the board of directors, and key stakeholders in the community. The Orchestra is an asset to this incredibly supportive community. I look forward to helping the PCO reach the next artistic level.”
Edelstein succeeds Yaniv Attar. A beloved friend and leader of the Orchestra for the past eight years, We wish Maestro Attar well, who was recently named the Music Director of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra.
The Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1991 as the Pennsylvania Centre Chamber Orchestra Society, is a 501 (C)(3) corporation dedicated to provide the Central Pennsylvania region with an artistically superb orchestra and orchestra concerts, as well as to develop an environment where the awareness and appreciation for orchestral music will flourish.
For more information, contact:
Ron McGlaughlin, Board Chair
