Julien Benichou, Music Director

MAESTRO JULIEN BENICHOU, at 39, is a young conductor with a long musical career behind him. At 19, he directed his first choral ensemble. At 22 he conducted his first orchestra. Twenty years of professional experience, along with studies in the most prestigious conservatories and music schools in two continents, had prepared him well to take over the baton when he joined the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra as Music Director. He just completed three successful years with the MSO. He consistently led the orchestra to new levels, raising the caliber of the musicians and of the performance, attracting audiences increasing in numbers and enthusiasm. He is about to present his fourth MSO Season Series, with an exciting program and outstanding soloists.

Julien Benichou is also Music Director of the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the New Music Ensemble at Towson University. Previous positions have included Assistant Conductor of the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, Acting Music Director of the Johns Hopkins Medical School Choir and Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Skokie Symphony Orchestra, the Columbia Orchestra and director of the Pre-College Chamber Orchestra at Juilliard.  Mr. Benichou's guest conducting opportunities have included the Annapolis Symphony, the Londontowne Symphony and the North Shore Chamber orchestras.

Before coming to the United States in 1995 for graduate study with Gustav Meier at the Peabody Conservatory, Mr. Benichou held positions in his native France leading choral ensembles in Martigues, Berre and Montmartre.  Further studies were at the Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory where he studied conducting with Jean-Sebastien Bereau.  He received a diploma in harmony and counterpoint from La Schola Cantorum in Paris and was the recipient of several awards.  

Julien Benichou received a graduate performance diploma from Peabody Conservatory and during that time interned as assistant conductor of the Baltimore Opera Company. He earned a master's degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University under Victor Yampolsky, and did further graduate studies at Yale University with Lawrence Leighton Smith.  Among the conductors with whom he has participated in master classes are Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, Jorma Panula and JoAnn Falletta.  At the Hot Springs Music Festival Mr. Benichou received a fellowship as assistant conductor and the following summer as associate conductor.

Mr. Benichou has a special interest in new music and has led commissions, premieres and a recording on the Centaur label. He has also written and conducted the sound track for a recent film. Another strong interest is music education.  Mr. Benichou has taken the Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra on two European tours and in the summer of 2008 traveled with fifteen music students to the Chaillol Festival in France where he led them in performances of classical and baroque repertoire. In the fall of 2009, he will conduct performances of Damon Ferrante’s Opera, Jefferson and Poe in North Carolina and Manhattan as well as Gounod’s Faust with Baltimore Concert Opera.

Julien Benichou lives in Baltimore, MD, with his wife Daphne and their two children, Belina, 9, and Marius 6 years old. Daphne plays the viola and performs professionally with several symphony orchestras. Julien likes to entertain friends and family. He loves to cook and makes a delicious apple pie and a scrumptious chocolate mousse. He also builds computers and enjoys listening on the Internet to all kinds of musical and entertainment programs from France, his native country. He is gregarious, charismatic and has a great sense of humour. He loves to tell jokes, in French and in English.

Simeone Tartaglione, Assistant Conductor

Simeone Tartaglione (b. 1973), is a versatile conductor whose passion for music in many forms keeps him busy. His preparation was in the European tradition, covering conducting, composition, opera and chamber music in Rome at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory and piano performance at the V. Bellini Institute. In addition to his various degrees and honors, he is Doctor in Philology (Italian Literature and Musicology). Mr. Tartaglione has had extensive conducting experience in symphonic and operatic repertoires with orchestras from Italy, Spain, the United States, Russia, Romania, Mexico, Ukraine and Bulgaria.

He has won numerous competitions and prizes along the way (Allied Arts, Leon Guide, Athanor, Le Arti, Telamone, Diamante della Musica, Sykele’, Rapisarda). In Rome he worked as the Artistic Director of the Theatre Fusillo and the MUSA Cultural Association. After winning an audition at the University of Denver as Assistant Conductor he moved to Denver in 2005 and soon after he became Adjunct Professor of Conducting.

He worked as guest conductor, vocal coach, pianist and harpsichord player with Central City Opera, Marilyn Horne Foundation, Colorado Symphony Orchestra Education and Outreach Programs, Augustana Musica Sacra Orchestra, Broadway Music School. He has served as cover conductor and assistant for the London Symphony Chorus, Colorado Symphony, Baltimore Opera, Baltimore Symphony, Peabody Symphony, Peabody Opera, and the Mid-Atlantic Symphony.

Invited in 2007 by Maestro Gustav Meier, Tartaglione refined his craft at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a conducting assistantship. He also serves as the Artistic Director of the Symphonia Association in Sicily. He performs regularly in Europe as a conductor and in duo concerts with his wife, violinist Alessandra Cuffaro.