Conductors

Mitchell Sardou Klein is Music Director of the Peninsula Symphony and the Peninsula Youth Orchestra and a frequent guest conductor of orchestras in the United States and abroad. Maestro Klein is a winner of many prestigious awards with decades of experience in the U.S. and abroad. His innumerable honors include the 2000 ASCAP Award for Programming of American Music on Foreign Tour, the 1993 Bravo Award for his contribution to the Bay Area's cultural life, and a 1996 award for the year's best television performance program in the Western States for a PBS special about him and the Peninsula Symphony.

In addition to his work with the Peninsula Symphony, Maestro Klein has spent almost 20 years as the Director of the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, which is named after his father, a famed cellist. Held in San Francisco each June, the Competition has become one of the most prominent in the world, featuring a first place prize of $10,000, attracting applicants from more than twenty nations annually. The Klein Competition has launched numerous major international careers of artists such as Alyssa Park, Wendy Warner, and Mark Kosower.

Maestro Klein has appeared on the podiums of such orchestras as the New Polish Philharmonic, San Jose Symphony, Seattle Symphony and many others. Cited for his "keen judgment, tight orchestral discipline, feeling for tempo, and unerring control", Maestro Klein has appeared frequently on national and international broadcasts, including National Public Radio, the Voice of America, the WFMT Fine Arts Network, and PBS Television.

Jessica Bejarano is entering her first season as Assistant Conductor of the Peninsula Symphony. Ms. Bejarano received her Master of Arts in Conducting from the University of California Davis in 2008, and her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of Wyoming in 2006. As an active member of the Conductors' Guild, Ms. Bejarano has attended the 2005-08 annual conferences and various Conductors' Guild training workshops around the United States.

Ms. Bejarano attended the California Conducting Institute in Bakersfield, California in 2007 and participated in a master class with Leon Fleisher and the University of California Davis Symphony Orchestra in 2008. Ms. Bejarano attended the International Academy of Advanced Conducting in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2007 where she conducted the Classical Symphony of St. Petersburg, Russia and attended the academy again this summer 2008 in Urbino, Italy. This past summer Ms. Bejarano also attended the International Institute for Conductors in Bacau, Romania where she gave two performances with The Philharmonic Orchestra "Mihail Jora" of Bacau.

Ms. Bejarano has served as Music Director of the Davis Summer Symphony, Assistant Conductor to the University of California Davis Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the University Chorus and Chamber Singers at the University of California, Davis.