Gustav Meier is known internationally as a teacher of conductors. He has led orchestras around the globe while teaching at the Yale University, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Michigan and the Tanglewood Music Center.

He has conducted the Pittsburgh and China National Symphonies, the Hungarian and Vienna State Opera Orchestras, the Sao Paulo State Symphony, the Chicago’s Grant Park Symphony, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Long Beach and Colorado Symphony Orchestras and others. He has led performances at the New York City, Santa Fe, Miami, San Francisco, Zurich and Minnesota Opera Companies. Innovative programming has earned Mr. Meier critical acclaim. He collaborated with film director Robert Altman (Igor Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress), conducted William Bolcom’s Song of Innocence and Experience (American Premiere), Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Help! Help! The Globolinks! (American Premiere), Elliot Carter’s Double Concerto (First Performance), Chris Rouse’s  Infernal Machine (First Performance) to mention just a few.

Students of his include Marin Alsop (Baltimore Symphony, Cabrillo Festival), Antonio Pappano (Royal Opera Covent Garden, Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia), Bobby McFerrin, Yakov Kreizberg (First Prize Stokovsky Competition, Netherlands Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra), Rico Saccani (First Prize Karajan Competition,Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra), Carl St. Clair (Komische Oper Berlin and Pacific Symphony), Mark Gibson (Cincinnati Conservatory), Jun Märkl (Lyon National Symphony Orchestra), Ben Loeb (International Workshop and Festival) and more.

At present Gustav Meier is on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory and Music Director of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut. Mr. Meier has also received Honory Doctorate Degrees from Fairfield University, Kalamazoo College and Michigan State University. His book The Composer, the Orchestra and the Conductor has just been published by Oxford University Press. 

Rossen Milanov has already been hailed as "one who bears watching by anyone who cares about the future of music". As Associate Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, he regularly conducts concerts with that Orchestra, while also serving as Music Director of both the Haddonfield Symphony in New Jersey and New Symphony Orchestra in his native city Sofia, Bulgaria. Recently he was named Chief Conductor of the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Mr Milanov's 2003/04 season highlights included a week of Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concerts celebrating the 75th birthday of pianist Gary Graffman, with a programme featuring Ravel?s Left Hand Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, and the first Philadelphia Orchestra performances of blue cathedral by Jennifer Higdon. In December, Mr Milanov conducted the orchestra's annual series of holiday concerts, and later in the season conducted a production of Puccini's La Boheme at the Curtis Institute. In the 2004/05 season, in addition to a busy schedule in Philadelphia including the world premiere of Nicholas Maw's English Horn Concerto, he will be making subscription debuts with the Indianapolis Symphony and Elgin Symphony, and will return to the Omaha Symphony and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He has been invited to open the 2005/06 season of The Hague Residentie Orchestra.

Mr Milanov studied conducting at the Juilliard School (recipient of the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship), the Curtis Institute of Music, Duquesne University, and the Bulgarian National Academy of Music, with teachers including Otto-Werner Mueller, Robin Fountain, and Vassil Kazandjiev. North American guest conducting appearances have included concerts and tours with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, New World Symphony, Duluth-Superior Symphony, Juilliard Opera Center, and Curtis Opera Theater. He was Music Director of the Chicago Youth Symphony from 1997-2001, and has participated in numerous summer festivals, including Tanglewood and the Interlochen Arts Festival.

Mr Milanov retains a close association with his native city of Sofia in Bulgaria. As music director of the New Symphony Orchestra, the first privately funded orchestra in Eastern Europe, he has commissioned and premiered many new works, introduced American music to Bulgarian audiences, and made several recordings. In 2003 he led the New Symphony in a cycle of Brahms?s complete symphonies and concertos. He also conducted a recent production of Wagner's Flying Dutchman to much critical acclaim, and in 2001 accompanied the legendary Bulgarian bass Nikolai Ghiaurov in Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death. Mr Milanov founded the Sofia-Mt Vitosha International Conducting Institute, a summer festival dedicated to the training of young aspiring conductors, and also received the Award for Extraordinary Contribution to Bulgarian Culture.