Staff

Los Angeles Youth Orchestra Staff

Composer Russell Steinberg instills passion for music in listeners of all ages. He is the Artistic Director and Founder of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra, a widely-praised ensemble that includes 120 students from over 60 schools. The orchestra recently completed its second successful international tour performing to enthusiastic crowds in Italy at Cremona, Montecatini, and Rome. Steinberg is also a popular pre-concert speaker for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and offers an annual Winter Lecture Series on a wide range of topics. His AudioMaps® use simple illustrations that help people follow the narrative of symphonic music in full understanding without musical training.

Steinberg’s music fuses Romanticism with contemporary pulse and colors that reviewers call “freshly lyrical, pulsating, edgy, infectious” and “shimmering with great beauty and energy.” Three orchestras – the New West Symphony, the Bay Atlantic Symphony, and the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra – commissioned and premiered Cosmic Dust, a work that Science News Magazine featured in its issue celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. His Daniel Pearl Foundation commission, Stories From My Favorite Planet, tells the compelling story of Wall Street Journalist Daniel Pearl, alternating music with Pearl’s own brilliant tragic-comic articles. Numerous performances have included Theodore Bikel and LA Philharmonic violinist Mitchell Newman. The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony recently premiered Canopy of Peace, a song cycle on meditations by noted scholar and philosopher Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis. The SAN BERNARDINO CARES benefit for the families of the victims of the 2015 terrorist attack performed Aria for a Calmer World for solo violin and orchestra. Steinberg’s two award-winning string quartets were premiered by the New World String Quartet in Boston and the Lyris Quartet in Los Angeles.

Commissions and premieres for 2017-2018 include Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano with Sierra Ensemble in the Presidio in San Francisco, Whack-A-Mole USA with double bassist James Rapport at the Gesellschaft für Musiktheater in Vienna, and Paleface with the celebrated Neave Trio that will have the trio playing to a video projection of paintings by acclaimed “psychological pop” artist Jerry Kearns at the Dimenna Center in New York City.

Steinberg received a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University studying with Leon Kirchner, an M.M. from the New England Conservatory studying with Arthur Berger, and a B.A. from UCLA studying with Elaine Barkin. He has taught music theory at Harvard University and UCLA as an Assistant Professor and Visiting Assistant Professor. He developed over a dozen music listening courses for UCLA Extension. He was also Director of Music for 15 years at Milken Community High School where he created a classical music program for the all the Stephen Wise Temple schools, including elementary, middle school, and high school.

Information about Steinberg’s current performances, recordings, and lectures, is available at www.russellsteinberg.com.

Joyce LaBriola is an arts advocate, community builder, and experienced leader, joining Los Angeles Youth Orchestra from 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica. Joyce’s career spans two decades with leadership roles in the sports industry (the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, the CFL’s Edmonton Elks, the ECHL’s Phoenix RoadRunners, and the ECHL League Office), the arts world (Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Winspear Centre for Music, 18th Street Arts Centre, and the Citadel Theatre), and the non-profit sector (HIV Edmonton, Unusual Suspects Theatre Company).

Joyce founded the Artists for Life Foundation of Alberta in 2009, a volunteer-run non-profit organization with the mission of advocating for those affected by HIV/AIDS, those who identify as LGBTQIA2S+, and marginalized, vulnerable and at-risk populations while celebrating the philanthropic spirit of the arts. She was selected as one of Avenue Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” and has been celebrated for her work in community engagement in Edmonton Woman Magazine and MUSE Music. Joyce has been awarded many honors, such as the National Philanthropy Day Award by the Association for Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and won the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose’s Jean Lawson Award for her advocacy work. In addition, Joyce was nominated for the John Poole Promotion of the Arts Award and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the Arts and Culture category. As a leader in her field, Joyce was appointed to the City of Edmonton’s WAVE (Women’s Advocacy Voice of Edmonton) Committee and was named as a You Can Play Ambassador representing Western Canada.

Joyce is a graduate of Rider University/Westminster Choir College and spent her entire life on the musical theatre stage. She is a professional musician, writing and performing her own work, as well as singing with Edmonton Opera and the South Pasadena Arts and Music Academy.

Elise Dewsberry Green has had a varied career as a singer, actor, and director in the musical theatre world; as well as bookkeeper, retail store manager, legal secretary, and website designer in the business world. She is currently also the Artistic Director of New Musicals Inc. in North Hollywood, a non-profit organization that works with bookwriters, lyricists, and composers in developing new musicals. Elise is also the wife of LAYO Cello Coach, Stephen Green.

While living in Toronto, Elise served as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Muskoka Festival; the Co-Ordinator of the festival’s annual Musical Theatre Writer’s Colony, the Associate Dramaturge of the Canadian Stage Company; the Resident Dramaturge of the Smile Theatre Company; and was the co-founder of Toronto’s Script Lab. Elise spent many years touring Canada with Nine Months – a one-woman musical which she commissioned from writers Carl Ritchie and Stephen Woodjetts. Elise and Carl also co-wrote Any Body Home?, which was produced by the Cordova Bay Theatre in Victoria, British Columbia, and published by Dramatic Publishing. Elise is also the author and evaluator of the Book Lab and the Outlining Lab, offered online through www.writingmusicaltheatre.com, and publishes a monthly vlog on the craft of musical theatre available at https://nmi.org/elises-video-blog/.