Chelsea Gallo
Labeled a 鈥渞ising star鈥� within the conducting world (Associated Press), conductor Chelsea Gallo has been praised for her ability to 鈥渓ead the orchestra with grace and fiery command鈥� (Michigan Daily). Her conducting style has been described as 鈥渇ully in control 鈥� stylish, skillful and attentive鈥� (Dallas News).
For the 2025-2026 season, Gallo begins her third season as Resident Conductor of The 91社区 Orchestra (conducting over 50 performances), Principal Guest Conductor of the Orlando Philharmonic, and returns to the New York Philharmonic to serve as an Assistant Conductor. She is the recipient of a 2022 Sir Georg Solti Career Assistance Grant and was a 2022 Hart Conducting Fellow with the Dallas Opera. Most recently, Gallo recorded the premiere album of the music from Johanna Senfter with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany under the Capriccio label.
Upcoming debuts include engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dayton Opera (Carmen), Noord Nederlands Orkest (The Netherlands), the Knoxville Symphony, Opera Tampa (Macbeth), Orquesta Filarm贸nica de Jalisco (Mexico), and the New Mexico Philharmonic. Gallo has conducted leading orchestras and opera companies including the Utah Symphony, Dallas Opera, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Opera Orlando, Toledo Symphony, Hartford Opera, Missouri Symphony, Marigny Opera, Slovak Sinfonietta, Bozeman Symphony, the Sewanee Music Festival, Jackson Symphony, the Lancaster Symphony, and the Youngstown Symphony among others.
A passionate advocate for expanding classical music鈥檚 reach, Gallo has collaborated with a wide range of organizations and companies, including The Walt Disney Company, New York Yankees, NASA, and the Lincoln Motor Company. She describes her artistic mission as 鈥渁 devotion to sharing the relevancy and humanity within classical music.鈥�
With a unique affinity for science and music, Gallo has spearheaded interdisciplinary projects uniting both worlds. She has partnered with NASA, Lockheed Martin, the National Institute of Aerospace and the European Space Agency, and led recording projects for NASA鈥檚 Orion EFT-1 launch mission. Her ensemble became the official artistic partner for the Hubble Space Telescope鈥檚 25th Anniversary Celebrations. She was recently invited by the University of Michigan鈥檚 Department of Nuclear Engineering to collaborate on a project exploring creativity in the hard sciences by drawing parallels between conducting an orchestra and managing a nuclear reactor.
A champion of living composers, Gallo conducted the Michigan premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen鈥檚 Helix, the American premiere of Michael Gordon鈥檚 Bassoon Concerto, and the world premiere of the ballet A Streetcar Named Desire by Tucker Fuller. During the 2025-26 season, she will give the U.S. premiere of Thierry Caens 鈥橳ribones Triple Trombone Concerto. Her opera credits include productions of Mozart鈥檚 Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberfl枚te, and Don Giovanni, Britten鈥檚 A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream, Verdi鈥檚 La Traviata, Macbeth, and Falstaff, Bizet鈥檚 Carmen, Bernstein鈥檚 Candide and Shuying Li鈥檚 Who Married Star Husbands.
Gallo studied conducting in Vienna, Prague and Bansk谩 艩tiavnica with Leo拧 Sv谩rovsk媒 and the late Maksimilijan Cen膷i膰. In Vienna, she also studied piano with Giorgi Latsabidze and violin with Barbara Gorzynska. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from the
University of Michigan, where she studied under Kenneth Kiesler. Gallo has attended festivals and masterclasses with renowned conductors including Sir Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim.