Ithaca College

Jeffery Meyer, the new conductor of the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, will lead a free concert on Friday, October 13 at 8:15 in Ford Hall. Meyer, who also conducts the St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Orchestra, has chosen a program including Dvorak’s seventh symphony, Brahms’s “Variations on a Theme by Haydn,” and Jennifer Higdon’s “Loco.” Higdon is this year’s Karel Husa Visiting Professor of Composition at Ithaca College.

Born in Chicago, Jeffery Meyer began his musical studies as a pianist, and shortly thereafter continued on to study composition and conducting. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, Russia. In recent concert seasons, he has been seen conducting, performing as piano soloist and chamber musician, as well as conducting from the keyboard in the United States, Canada, Russia, and Germany. During the 2001-2002 academic year he lived and studied in Berlin and Leipzig as the recipient of a DAAD grant in music. He was recently selected as a semi-finalist in the 2004 Pedrotti International Competition for Conductors, a finalist in the 2003 Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition, and a semi-finalist in the 2003 Beethoven Sonata International Piano Competition, Memphis, Tennessee.