Russell Steinberg, Ph.D, Founder & Artistic Director

Composer Russell Steinberg was selected for The 2024 Musical America Top 30 Professionals of the Year. In June 2024, he publicly released his online catalog of nearly one hundred original compositions. His music has been described as “floating, luminous” (Boston Globe), “freshly lyrical, pulsating, edgy, infectious” (New York Concert Review), and “deeper, while maintaining a descriptive surface” (Fanfare Magazine). His piano trio Paleface is available on Albany records, recorded by Trio Accento. Three orchestras—the New West Symphony in Los Angeles, the Bay Atlantic Symphony in New Jersey, and the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore—commissioned and premiered Cosmic Dust, a work that Science News Magazine featured in its issue celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. A Daniel Pearl Foundation commission, Stories From My Favorite Planet, tells the story of Wall Street Journalist Daniel Pearl, alternating music with readings of Pearl’s own brilliant tragi-comic articles. Steinberg’s Hanukkah fantasy Lights On! is annually by the Bay Atlantic Symphony in New Jersey.

Steinberg’s music has received awards and grants from ASCAP (Young Composers Grant and ASCAPLUS), Composers Inc., NACUSA, MacDowell Colony, Aspen Composer Fellowships, First Prize in the New World String Quartet competition, the HEAR NOW Festival, a Gold Medal Jury’s Choice at the Park City Film Music Festival, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT), and the Jewish Center for Culture and Creativity. His solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral music has had extensive performances in the United States and worldwide.

Steinberg is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra, which recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary and embarks on a Carnegie Hall Tour in Summer 2026. His popular preconcert talks for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other orchestras have enlisted an enthusiastic fan base that participates in his regular Zoom music lecture series, as well as his Classical Listening Hangouts.

Steinberg holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, studying with Pulitzer prize-winning composer Leon Kirchner, an M.M. from the New England Conservatory studying with Arthur Berger, and a B.A. summa cum laude from UCLA with Elaine Barkin, Roy Travis, and Paul Reale. His early instrumental and composition teachers were Dorothy Compinsky (piano, classical guitar, violin), Kenneth Klauss(composition), Earle C. Voorhies (piano), Salome Arkatov (piano), and Ron Purcell (classical guitar).

Information about Steinberg’s music and music lectures is available at www.russellsteinberg.com and his music catalog is available at www.russellsteinberg.com/composer

Jorge Padrón, Assistant Conductor

Jorge Padrón is a doctoral student at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music where he is working toward his DMA in music teaching and learning with emphases in instrumental conducting, musical theory, and arts leadership. He has taught teacher preparation courses at USC and Pepperdine, was a site conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s YOLA program, and directed the district-wide honors orchestra for The Harmony Project. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Jorge was the orchestra director at Miami Palmetto Senior High School. He taught orchestra classes along with elective guitar courses, AP Music Theory, and sponsored the high school’s chapter of Mu Alpha Theta (the national mathematics honor society). As a result of his work in the educational community, he was recognized by the Village of Palmetto Bay and the Miami-Dade County School District for his “exemplary public service.” He has also served on the editorial committee of the American String Teacher Journal and is preparing publications for both Action, Criticism, and Theory and the Music Educator Journal. Jorge has worked in various educational settings, including starting after-school strings classes at local elementary schools in South Florida, beginning a band program at Camino Nuevo High School near downtown Los Angeles, and assisting with mentoring and training music teachers through USC’s Thornton Community Engagement Program. Jorge is also an active clinician and adjudicator for the Florida Orchestra Association, as well as a few other district music festivals in South Florida. Jorge holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University. While at the Frost School, he studied clarinet with Margaret Donaghue, violin with Scott Flavin, and harpsichord with Frank Cooper. At USC Thornton, he currently studies conducting with Larry Livingston and Jacob Sustaita.

Elise Dewsberry Green, Orchestra Manager

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/.

Julie Resh, Financial Grants Coordinator

Bonnie Winings, Marketing and Publicity Coordinator