Music Director

Michael Neumann - Music Director

Maestro Michael Neumann has been the music director and conductor for the Folsom Symphony since its inaugural performance in 2004. It is the high stature Maestro Neumann has achieved as an artist and musician that has enabled the symphony, from its fledgling years, to attract top-quality talent.

As music director, Maestro Neumann auditions and selects the musicians, plans the programs and conducts the rehearsals and concerts. At many performances, he interacts with and educates the audience on the context and musicology of the pieces to be played. At one rehearsal a year, he introduces students to classical music and the orchestra instruments.

Maestro Neumann was already an esteemed conductor when he agreed to first advise and then join the Folsom Symphony. Since 1979, he has been the music director for the Sacramento Youth Symphony and Academy of Music. Under his direction, the Youth Symphony has made several major tours abroad and won international awards. He often invites his young musicians to perform with the Folsom Symphony.

In 1998, Maestro Neumann was awarded a fellowship from the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission for his outstanding contributions to arts and education.

Maestro Neumann has been a guest conductor throughout California and the West, including the Cheyenne Symphony, the Fresno Philharmonic, Sacramento’s Philharmonic and Camellia orchestras, the Napa Valley Symphony and the Nevada and California All-State Orchestras.

He also is an accomplished violinist. His first teacher was Maria Neuss, the great-great granddaughter of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.