Reflections on starting my 29th year as conductor of the Dayton Pharmonic

Neal Gittleman is he Artistic Director and the Principal Conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. 

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Neal Gittleman graduated from Yale University in 1975. He continued his musical studies with the eminent teachers Nadia Boulanger and Annette Dieudonné in Paris, Hugh Ross at the Manhattan School of Music and Charles Bruck at both the Pierre Monteux Domaine School and the Hartt School of Music, where he was the recipient of the Karl Böhm Fellowship. In 1984, he was the Second Prize Winner of Geneva’s Ernest Ansermet International Conducting Competition, and, two years later, he was awarded Third Prize at the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition in New York City. In 1989, he was selected for the American Conductors Program at the American Symphony Orchestra League’s annual conference in San Francisco. In May 2014, he was awarded a 2014 Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio.

Since he came to the Philharmonic in the Fall of 1995 Neal has been deeply involved in and connected to the Greater Dayton community.  For nearly three decades, he has worked tirelessly to make the idea of community service central to the mission of the Orchestra, especially through programs that serve students in Southwest Ohio’s public, private, and home schools.  In 2014 the State of Ohio recognized Neal’s devotion to the community by awarding him the 2014 Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio for Community Development and Participation.