Otto-Werner Mueller, conductor

At age nineteen, Otto-Werner Mueller was appointed director of the chamber music department for Radio Stuttgart. He conducted opera and operetta for the Heidelberg Theater and founded and conducted an orchestra for families of United States military forces stationed there.

After immigrating to Canada in 1951, he worked extensively for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He taught and conducted at the Montreal Conservatory; served as director of the Victoria Symphony and founder and dean of the Victoria School of Music; served as guest professor at the Moscow State Conservatory; and guest conducted the Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Riga symphony orchestras.

Mr. Mueller has conducted in every major city in Canada and has had guest appearances with the Scottish National Orchestra; Krakow Philharmonic; and National, Atlanta, Detroit, Saint Louis, and other United States symphony orchestras.

Mr. Mueller is conductor emeritus at Juilliard and has taught at the Yale University School of Music and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has trained conductors of major orchestras--including the San Diego, Pittsburgh, and Fort Worth symphonies and the Swedish National Orchestra--and associate or assistant conductors of the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Minnesota orchestras; Boston and St. Louis symphonies; and Los Angeles and Munich philharmonics.

Mr. Mueller joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1986. His former Curtis students include Alan Gilbert, music director of the New York Philharmonic; Paavo Järvi, music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; and Benjamin Shwartz, resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony.