Remembering conductor and music educator Michael Jinbo Veteran Music Director of The Monteux School and Music Festival

About Michael Jinbo
A respected conductor and educator, Michael Jinbo was only the third Music Director of the renowned Monteux School and Music Festival (MSMF), a summer school and intensive training experience for conductors and orchestra musicians founded in 1943 in Hancock, Maine, by internationally acclaimed French-born conductor Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) and his wife, Doris Hodgkins Monteux. Mr. Jinbo succeeded his mentor, Charles Bruck, considered one of the great conducting teachers of his generation, in 1995. As the school's master teacher, each summer he directed an orchestra comprising musicians from around the world, as well as taught a class of 15-20 conductors each summer. He concurrently served as Conductor of the Nittany Valley Symphony for 30 years.

He made his European debut in 1999, appearing as guest conductor with the Sinfonieorchester Basel in concerts in Switzerland and Germany. His guesting engagements included the Orquesta Sinfónica Carlos Chávez in Mexico, Altoona Symphony, Bangor Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, the orchestra of the Longy School of Music (Boston), and Canada's Quebec Festival of Youth Orchestras. 

Early in his career, Jinbo served as the Assistant Conductor of the North Carolina Symphony for four seasons, with whom he performed 60-75 concerts each season, including classical, ballet, pops and educational programs. Over his career he performed with a wide range of artists, including pianist Garrick Ohlsson, violinist Kyoko Takezawa, prima ballerina assoluta Galina Mezentseva and the St. Petersburg Ballet of Russia, and the legendary Cab Calloway.

A knowledgeable educator, Maestro Jinbo participated in the 2000 Annual Conference and 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Conductors Guild in New York City, where he served as guest speaker in a session entitled “The Education of Conductors,"and twice served as a member of the instrumental music panel of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. 

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Michael Jinbo began his music career as a violinist, and appeared as soloist with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and others before focusing on conducting. He received a B.A. in Music from The University of Chicago, and an M.M. in Conducting from the Northwestern University School of Music, where he was the winner of the Honors Conducting Competition and selected for induction in the national honorary music society Pi Kappa Lambda. Further conducting training included the Monteux School and Music Festival, California's Herbert Blomstedt Institute, the Scotia Festival of Music in Nova Scotia, and at workshops of the American Symphony Orchestra League and the Conductors Guild. In 1991, Jinbo was selected by the Conductors Guild as a nominee for their biennial Robinson Conducting Award.