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Karla Kelley is the conductor of our Coastal Chamber Orchestra, an advanced ensemble, which will include strings and select wind players. Rehearsals will take place at Mt. Ararat High School on Tuesday evenings starting in September. With the addition of the new Coastal Chamber Orchestra conducted by Kelley, CYO now has three ensembles. Nancy Roderick will continue working with The Fiddleheads, a beginning ensemble for string students and The Coastal String Ensemble, an ensemble for intermediate level string students.
Karla Kelley is active throughout New England as a conductor. Since 1987 she has served as conductor of the Maine State Ballet Orchestra, a 50-member professional orchestra that she founded, and which performs for more than 10,000 people annually. Additionally Ms. Kelley was assistant conductor of the Portland (Maine) Opera Repertory Theatre, and in 1992 she was selected from among 180 applicants to the post of assistant conductor of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.
Ms. Kelley was awarded the Masters of Music degree in orchestral conducting from the New England Conservatory, where her principal teachers were Carl St. Clair and Pascal Verrot. She has also participated in master classes led by Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano and Samuel Jones. An accomplished pianist and coach, Karla Kelley has played for numerous regional opera companies and orchestras, as well as for a variety of choruses, chamber ensembles and solo artists in New England. She is a member of the Acting Singers Project of Boston and serves as staff accompanist at Boston Conservatory and Boston University..