Meet the Artists
Blue Buzz
Performances May 17 and 18, 2025
Conductors
Clancy Ellis
Praised for his “clear, discreet, and precise” conducting, Clancy Ellis is an orchestra and opera conductor based in Boston, MA. He currently assists David Angus at the Boston Lyric Opera while finishing a Diploma in Conducting at the New England Conservatory with professors Hugh Wolff and Stefan Asbury. As a Julius Rudel Conducting Fellow, he assisted JoAnn Falletta at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and made his debut with the BPO in 2023. Ellis has served as assistant conductor to several top conservatory orchestras and prepared the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra for distinguished guest conductors such as JoAnn Falletta, Leonard Slatkin, and Anthony Parnther. Previously, Ellis appeared as guest conductor of the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra and has conducted the Lviv National Philharmonic and the Eastern Festival Orchestra. Passionately interested in opera, he has conducted in festivals throughout the United States and Europe, most recently serving as Assistant Conductor of the 2024 Glimmerglass Opera Festival. He was chosen by Riccardo Muti as one of four conductors to study and conduct Bellini’s Norma in Milan for the Riccardo Muti Opera Academy. Ellis holds degrees from the Mannes School of Music and the Eastman School of Music.
Maurice Cohn
"A two-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, Maurice Cohn currently serves as Music Director of the West Virginia Symphony and as Artistic Partner and Conductor of New York City’s Camerata Notturna. Recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include the Cincinnati Symphony, Utah Symphony, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, ensembleNEWSRQ, Omaha Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, Music in the Mountains Festival, and the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra.
Maurice completed a three-year tenure as the Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony at the end of the 23/24 season, including his subscription debut in 2023. Other performance highlights with DSO include the world premiere of Mason Bates’s Philharmonia Fantastique, the second ever performance of Gabriela Ortiz’s Yanga, and a concert performance of selections from Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Concurrent with his time in Dallas, Maurice was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Aspen Music Festival for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Maurice spent two summers as a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, where he received the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize and the Aspen Conducting Prize, and he received an M.M. in conducting from the Eastman School of Music. He holds a B.M. in cello performance from Oberlin Conservatory and a B.A. from Oberlin College, where he studied history and mathematics. When not conducting or playing cello, you can find him reading mystery novels, playing tennis, or continually searching for the best podcast app."