Leadership

Isaac Selya
Founder and Artistic Director

A musician of remarkable versatility, Isaac has extensive experience as a conductor, pianist, vocal coach, cellist and entrepreneur. He made his German debut conducting the world-famous Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in fall 2018. He has been a featured Spotlight Artist in Musical America, and has guest conducted the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Xiamen Philharmonic in China, the National Symphony of Guatemala, and Pacific Opera Project, where he led the Los Angeles stage premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. For the Glimmerglass Festival, he coached and conducted the first-ever reading of the revised version of Philip Glass’s Appomattox, with the composer present. He was recently named an inaugural conducting associate at the Defiant Requiem Foundation, which presents performances of Verdi’s Requiem in commemoration of artists interested at the Terezín Ghetto, who performed Verdi’s Requiem in defiance of the Nazis.

Isaac holds a doctorate from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, where he specialized in historical casting trends in Mozart’s operas. He is one of the few conductors in the world who has conducted Mozart’s complete German-language operas.

With QCO, Isaac is responsible for selecting repertoire, contracting artists, coaching singers from the piano, and conducting performances. In addition, he handles librarian duties such as ordering parts and marking bowings. He is also responsible for administrative duties such as fund-raising, publicity, and renting performance spaces.