SILAS NATHANIEL HUFF
has conducted outstanding orchestral, choral, and new music
performances across America and Europe for ten years. In
2001, Mr. Huff was named Conductor of the Year by the California
State University system, and he was a semi-finalist in the 2004
Maikop International Conducting Competition (Russia). Mr. Huff’s
past conducting positions include Assistant Conductor of the
California State University Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the
Pacific Palisades Symphony (L.A., CA), Assistant Conductor of the
Greenwich Village Orchestra (N.Y., NY), and Music Director of the
Southwest German Youth Orchestra (Trossingen, Germany). Next year,
Mr. Huff will debut with the Boulder Chamber Orchestra (CO), and he
continues in his position as the Music Director of the Astoria
Symphony, Resident Conductor of the Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, and
Chair of the Music Department at an elite independent school on
Manhattan’s upper east side.
A native Texan, Mr. Huff
studied classical guitar at Texas State University before moving to
Los Angeles where he earned a Master of Music degree in music theory
and composition under the guidance of Ian Krouse at the University
of California at Los Angeles. While at UCLA, Mr. Huff began studying
conducting with Maestro Donald Neuen, and upon graduation became a
full-time student of orchestral conducting under Dr. Richard Rintoul
at California State University in Long Beach. Mr. Huff also spent
one year in residence at the Trossingen Hochschule für Musik in
Southwest Germany and two summers at the Institut Musical
Provence-Aubagne in Aix-en-Provence, France. Additionally, he
studied privately in Berlin, has attended dozens of workshops, and
has taken lessons with some of the world’s finest maestros,
including Kirk Trevor, Gustav Meier, Mariusz Smolij, Rossen Milanov,
Michael Tilson Thomas, Carl St. Clair, Harold Farberman, Barbara
Yahr, Chris Wilkins, and others.
Mr. Huff lives in New York City, and loves cats, jogging, European espresso, and his novelist wife Taylor Morris.