Listen to "A Day in the Life of Maestro Berard and the D.C. Youth Orchestra," featured on Classical WETA 90.9. Click to download mp3.

Jesus Manuel Berard, Music Director and Conductor, Youth Orchestra: Ph.D. (ABD), M. Phil., M.A., Columbia University; M.M., B.M., New England Conservatory. Mr. Berard was born in Havana, Cuba during the revolution and was raised in New York City. He studied composition, theory and analysis with Donald Martino and Robert Cogan at the New England Conservatory of Music, and with Patricia Carpenter, Jonathan Kramer and Fred Lerdahl at Columbia University, where he is currently finishing his doctoral dissertation on the music of Gustav Mahler. At New England Conservatory, Mr. Berard studied conducting with Piero Bellugi, Frank Battisti, as well as with David Epstein (M.I.T.) and Carl St. Clair (Boston Symphony Orchestra). During that time, he commuted regularly to Yale University to work under the legendary Otto-Werner Mueller, his principal teacher, with whom he also studied privately. At the Conductors Institute, he worked intensively under Maestro Harold Farberman and in master class with Larry Rachleff.

A committed educator as well, Mr. Berard has taught and conducted at New England Conservatory, Connecticut College, and Columbia and Hofstra Universities, among other institutions. He has been music director and conductor of the Columbia University Chamber Orchestra, the Connecticut College Orchestra, the faculty Chamber Players at Connecticut College, and the Hofstra University Symphony Orchestra.

As a guest conductor, he has worked with many ensembles and organizations, such as the Bulgarian State Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Society (Burgas) and the Georgetown University Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Berard has conducted opera for Ridotto in New York, was selected as principal guest conductor of the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra (Maine), and most recently appeared as guest conductor at the New Music Festival, hosted by UNC East Carolina University School of Music.

Mr. Berard is founder, artistic director and conductor of the acclaimed Peconic Chamber Orchestra, a twenty five-member professional ensemble based on Long Island, New York. Residing in Washington, D.C. and on the North Fork of Long Island, he is a full-time faculty member of American University, where he serves as director of orchestral activities and conductor of the American University Symphony Orchestra.

Mariano Vales, conductor, Junior Philharmonic: M.M. orchestral conducting, Yale University; M.M. orchestral conducting, Florida State University; Licenciaturas orchestral, choral conducting, and composition, Universidad Católica, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mr. Vales comes from a family of German musicians who emigrated to Argentina and the US.

He began his professional conducting career at the age of eighteen in Buenos Aires while studying conducting with Maestro Guillermo Scarabino. He continued his studies in the US under Maestro Philip Spurgeon in Florida State University, and Maestro Lawrence Leighton Smith at Yale University. In master classes he worked with Maestros Pedro Calderón, Romano Gandolfi, Roberto Duarte, Jean Fournet, Lawrence Ratckliff, George Manahan, Zdeneck Macal, and Gianluigi Gelmetti. The Mozarteum Argentino honored him with the Eduardo Gruneisen prize for young musicians. As a result he was able to study at the Accademia Chigiana in Italy, and to accompany the Chicago Symphony and Maestro Daniel Barenboim during their 2000 visit to Argentina. At Yale University he received the Frances G. Wickes Foundation of New York scholarship and the privilege to study as Special Student of the Dean.

Mr. Vales serves as the Music Director of the experimental ensemble Musica Aperta, with musicians from the Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center. This genre-defying ensemble of musicians, performers, playwrights, and video artists, opened their last show past June, "Six Degrees of Hamlet," as part of the festival “Shakespeare in Washington.” Mr. Vales is also orchestra and choir conductor at the Hartwick Summer Music Festival, conductor of the traditional German choir ‘Washington Saengerbund,’ and the music director at Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Laurel. His guest conducting engagements include the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Catskill Choral Society, Washington’s Contemporary Music Forum, and New Music New Haven.

Mr. Vales is also an active composer in the Washington theatrical scene. He is writing for the American Century Theater, and also for his new musical comedy, commissioned by the Gala Theater to open in the spring of 2009.

Victoria Gau, conductor, Young Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra: M.M. orchestral conducting and B.M. viola performance, Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Ms. Gau is currently the Music Director of the Capital City Symphony and the former Conductor and Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra in Richmond, Virginia . She has conducted the Central Virginia Junior Regional Orchestra Festival three times and has conducted the District XII Senior Regional Orchestra in McLean, VA, the Henrico (VA) All-County Orchestra, as well as the Kingston, NY Festival Orchestra. She has been conductor of the Akron Youth Symphony in Akron, OH, and Assistant Conductor of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra. In addition, Ms. Gau has served as music director for such Washington area companies as The Washington Savoyards, Victorian Lyric Opera Company, Annapolis Opera Musicales, the Eldbrook Opera Ensemble, and the IN-Series. She has guest conducted the Heights Civic Orchestra (Cleveland, OH) and the Akron (OH) Symphony, the Friday Morning Music Club Orchestra, and has been a guest conductor for the Kennedy Center Messiah Sing-Along. She is the former Artistic Director and Music Director/Conductor of the Other Opera Company in Bethesda, Maryland, which she co-founded in 1992.

Currently Ms. Gau maintains a private viola studio and also teaches at the Holton Arms Center for the Arts. She is the violist for the Envoy String Quartet, as well as an active free-lance violist and pianist. She works frequently as both a chamber musician and a conducting coach, as well as a vocal coach, working both privately and in the Crittenden Opera Studio. She has toured with Odyssey Opera Theatre and the Baltimore Opera Company, performing educational outreach in schools throughout the state of Maryland . Ms. Gau is currently on the opera faculty at George Mason University .

Jonathan Jones, conductor, Elementary Orchestra and Preparatory Orchestra: M.E., National-Louis University; B.M., Catholic University. Mr. Jones is currently the Orchestra Teacher at George Washington Middle School. He has conducted the ACPS All-City Orchestra for seven years, with superior ratings at festivals and first place honors at several orchestra competitions. Mr. Jones has played with the Washington Symphony Orchestra, the Pan American Symphony Orchestra and is currently a member of the Soulful Symphony Orchestra. He is also an active violinist in the greater Washington, DC area. Mr. Jones has taught for over 13 years with the DC Youth Orchestra Program.

Mary J. Garay, conductor, C-D Wind Ensemble and E-H Wind Ensemble: B.S., music education, University of Tennessee; additional studies, George Mason University. Ms. Garay has taught for over 30 years, the last 18 of which have been in Montgomery County. She taught at the Archdioceses of Washington Instrumental Music program and she has taught instrumental music for the last 8 years at Westland Middle School in Bethesda, Maryland. Her bands and orchestras have received consistently high marks and numerous prestigious awards at music festivals across the area. Ms. Garay served as director of the MCPS 6th Grade Honors Band from 1989 to 1999. In addition to her success as an instrumental music teacher, she has been an active musician in ensembles such as the Alexandria Symphony, the JCC Symphony, the M Street Brass Quintet, and the Washington Savoyards. Ms. Garay has taught with the DC Youth Orchestra Program in a variety of capacities for the last 18 years.

Élise Cuffy, conductor, C Orchestra and D Orchestra: B.M.E. studies, Howard University. An active freelance musician and music teacher in the greater Washington, DC area, Ms. Cuffy has been a cellist with the Mount Vernon Orchestra in Virginia, has participated in the Kennedy Center's Summer Music Institute, and in The Catholic University's Summer Opera Workshop. Ms. Cuffy has also recorded with many artists including Donnie McClurkin, Richard Smallwood, and Whitney Houston. She has also performed at Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall with Veronica Tyler and she is a member of the Soulful Symphony. Ms. Cuffy is an alumna of the DC Youth Orchestra Program, and while in the Program, toured China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Canada.