Cynthia Katsarelis has been with the FCS since 2005. She began her violin career at the age of 18, winning a position with the Florida Orchestra, and subsequently held titled positions with the Harrisburg and Saginaw Symphonies.

Additionally, Cynthia has a conducting career that involves serving as Music Director and Conductor of the Youth Orchestra of the Rockies and Lafayette Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, a professional chamber orchestra in Boulder County. She has conducted excellent professional, conservatory, youth and training orchestras. She was Conducting Assistant with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops, and held positions as Associate Conductor with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (North Carolina) and Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra. She made her international debut leading the Bourgas Philharmonic in Bourgas, Bulgaria. In Colorado, Cynthia was recently invited to assist the Colorado Music Festival by conducting the offstage brass in Mahler's Symphony No. 2, the "Resurrection."

Ms. Katsarelis' commitment to working with young musicians took her to Haiti in the Spring of 2004 to guest conduct the Haiti Philharmonic at the Holy Trinity School of Music in Port-au-Prince. She has also conducted clinics and sectionals at numerous Colorado high schools, including Fairview in Boulder, Thompson Valley and Loveland high schools, as well as Rocky Mountain high school. In February of 2006, Ms. Katsarelis guest conducted the University of Nebraska (Omaha) Honors Orchestra. Under Cynthia's leadership, the Youth Orchestra of the Rockies has grown from a program of 40 students to more than 80.

Ms. Katsarelis studied Violin and Conducting at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University, earning her Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees. At the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, she pursued doctoral studies in Orchestral and Opera Conducting. She studied with Frederik Prausnitz, Charles Bruck, and Kenneth Kiesler, and has also participated in master classes led by Neema Jarvi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Yoel Levi, Marin Alsop, and Helmuth Rilling.

Learn more about Youth Orchestra of the Rockies at: www.fortnet.org/YOR/about.html

Learn more about Lafayette Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra at: www.lafayettepromusica.org