Meet the Music Director
Meet the Musicians
Meet the Artistic Advisor
Ankush Bahl
Instrument: Conductor
Described as an “energetic” conductor who leads with “clear authority and enthusiasm” by the New York Times, Ankush Kumar Bahl is currently in his first season as the Music Director of the New Jersey Youth Symphony. Mr. Bahl spent his formative years in the San Francisco Bay Area receiving a double Bachelors Degree in Music and Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. He has been a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and completed his Master's Degree in conducting at the Manhattan School of Music with teachers Zdenek Macal, George Manahan and David Gilbert. Prior to MSM, Mr. Bahl's principal conducting teachers included Kenneth Kiesler, Alasdair Neale, and David Milnes. He is also fortunate to have participated in master classes and workshops with Sir Colin Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas, Christoph Eschenbach, Kurt Masur, David Zinman, David Robertson, James Conlon, Sergiu Comissiona, Gunther Schuller, Gustav Meier, Larry Rachleff, Jorma Panula, Michael Stern, Murry Sidlin, Colin Metters, and David Effron.
During his time in the Bay Area, Mr. Bahl held the position of Music Director with the U.C. Berkeley Summer Symphony, Berkeley's Messiah, and "B.A.C.H." (Baroque and Classical Harmonies). He has also served as assistant conductor to the New York Youth Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as to the U.C. Symphony and U.C. Wind Ensemble. In the summer of 2002, Mr. Bahl was engaged by the Prague Symphony Orchestra as the offstage conductor for Mahler's 2nd Symphony, with Zdenek Macal conducting. He currently spends his summers in Grächen, Switzerland as the Music Director of the International Goppisburg Music Festival.
Mr. Bahl lives in New York City where he is on the conducting staff at the Manhattan School. In Connecticut he serves as Music Director of the Ridgefield Symphony Youth Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra where in October 2004 he filled in for their, then ill, Music Director in a program that included Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Local reviewers described Mr. Bahl as “energetic,” “passionate,” “sensitive,” and “impressive” while also observing his “total mastery of the evening's scores, a fine conducting technique, and the obvious respect of his musicians.”
During his time in the Bay Area, Mr. Bahl held the position of Music Director with the U.C. Berkeley Summer Symphony, Berkeley's Messiah, and "B.A.C.H." (Baroque and Classical Harmonies). He has also served as assistant conductor to the New York Youth Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as to the U.C. Symphony and U.C. Wind Ensemble. In the summer of 2002, Mr. Bahl was engaged by the Prague Symphony Orchestra as the offstage conductor for Mahler's 2nd Symphony, with Zdenek Macal conducting. He currently spends his summers in Grächen, Switzerland as the Music Director of the International Goppisburg Music Festival.
Mr. Bahl lives in New York City where he is on the conducting staff at the Manhattan School. In Connecticut he serves as Music Director of the Ridgefield Symphony Youth Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra where in October 2004 he filled in for their, then ill, Music Director in a program that included Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Local reviewers described Mr. Bahl as “energetic,” “passionate,” “sensitive,” and “impressive” while also observing his “total mastery of the evening's scores, a fine conducting technique, and the obvious respect of his musicians.”
