Mr.
Kessler is a graduate of Harvard University, where he served as Music Director
of the Bach Society Orchestra and for Leverett House Opera. He holds a Masters
Degree in composition from Cleveland State University - a degree earned while
serving as a conductor of the orchestra and interim conductor of the choral
program. He also holds diplomas in conducting from the Salzburg Mozarteum
and London's Trinity College of Music.
Besides
his work with Suburban Symphony, Martin Kessler serves as Director of Music
at University School's
Hunting Valley Campus and is Music Director of the Choral Arts Society
of Cleveland. Also, he has conducted eight productions for Lyric
Opera Cleveland and three for Cain
Park. He is active as a composer and essayist, and enjoys his hobbies
of cooking, sailing and tennis. He lives in Cleveland Heights with his wife
Joyce.
Born
in Cleveland in 1949, Mr. Kessler received his early musical education in
piano, voice, theory and composition from the Cleveland Music School Settlement.
He also attended Cleveland Heights High School where he served as Student
Conductor of the Heights Choir. From there he was accepted as a conducting
student at the Meadowbrook School of Music, where his teachers included Robert
Shaw, Clayton Krehbeil and James Levine.
Martin
Kessler is beginning his twenty-fifth year as Music Director and Conductor
of the Suburban Symphony. During his tenure, the orchestra has grown in size
and stature while maintaining the best musical traditions of his predecessor,
Robert Weiskopf. The orchestra's
repertoire has been expanded to include works of Bartok, Hindemith,Ravel,
and Stravinsky as well as those of Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Brahms.