Karl Middleman

Karl Middleman is familiar to classical music audiences as a lecturer, teacher, and conductor of many orchestras and choirs. A native of Philadelphia, he began conducting at age 16 and won the ‘Salute to Youth Award’ for forming a diverse orchestra of college and high school students to present three years of summer concerts in Philadelphia parks. He continues to advance the cause of music as a social force in his classroom teaching, his public lectures and in his ‘Gateways to Global Music’ concert series. He completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in Music Theory and Music Composition at Temple University. He teaches at Temple University and Cabrini University and has served on the faculties of Philadelphia and Montgomery County Community Colleges. He has lectured for the Philadelphia Orchestra over 50 times and has presented public lectures on well over 300 different topics. Recently, he served as an arts advocate and trainer for the Classroom Arts Project of Partners in Distance Learning as well as Scholar-In-Residence for the South Jersey and Philadelphia Jewish Community Centers. He was a commonwealth speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council for many years, and his PHC presentations on Dvorak and Leonard Bernstein were broadcast on television and radio. In 2017 he began teaching at the Chautauqua Institute Summer Festival. He is a regular music workshop leader for the Pendle Hill Learning Center.