Maestro Eckart Preu (Eck-art Proy) begins his tenure with Long Beach Symphony as its 8th Music Director. He also serves as Music Director of the Spokane Symphony (WA) and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Previously, he held the positions of Music Director of Stamford Symphony (2005–2017), Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony (2001–2004), Resident Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra (1997–2004) and of the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra (1999–2004). Other former posts include Music Director of the Norwalk (CT) Youth Symphony and Principal Conductor of the New Amsterdam Symphony (NY). He was associated with the Bard Music Festival from 1997 to 2004 as both Assistant and Guest Conductor. In Europe, Maestro Preu served as Music Director of the Orchestre International de Paris (1993–1995).

As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the Jerusalem Symphony (Israel), Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Auckland Philharmonia (New Zealand), Radio Philharmonic of Slovenia, Pecs Philharmonic (Hungary), Varna Philharmonic (Bulgaria), and in Germany with the Jenaer Philharmoniker. Recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include concerts with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the Delaware Symphony, the Duluth Superior Symphony, the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, the Wichita Symphony, and the Portland Symphony (Maine). Recent international appearances include performances with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Chile, the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand, and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden in Germany.

Career highlights include performances at Carnegie Hall, the Sorbonne in Paris, a live broadcast with the Jerusalem Symphony, and his first commercial recording of the world premiere of Letters from Lincoln – a work commissioned by the Spokane Symphony from Michael Daugherty featuring baritone soloist Thomas Hampson. 2012 also saw a live CD recording featuring Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Sergey Malov and the New Zealand Philharmonia. His concerts have been aired from coast to coast and on Jerusalem Radio.

An innovative and passionate force both on and off the conductor’s podium, Mei-Ann Chen is one of America’s most dynamic young conductors. Music Director of the Memphis Symphony since 2010 and of the Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, she has infused both orchestras with energy, enthusiasm and high-level music-making, galvanizing their audiences and communities alike. A sought-after guest conductor, Ms. Chen’s reputation as a compelling communicator has resulted in growing popularity with orchestras both nationally and internationally.

Following debut performances with Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony, Canada’s Calgary Philharmonic, and Brazil’s Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra, closing the season for the Wintergreen Festival in Virginia and the Texas Music Festival in Houston, and concerts with Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, Maestra Chen’s 2014-15 season includes concerts throughout the United States and in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and Taiwan. Performances of note include Maestra Chen leading Germany’s Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe and Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra in November 2014, and San Francisco Symphony’s renowned Chinese New Year celebration and the Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw in February 2015.

Recent performance highlights include an impressive debut with the Indianapolis Symphony as a last-minute step-in engagement, debuts with the Chicago Symphony on its subscription series, the San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony (where she stepped in on short notice and was immediately re-engaged), and San Diego Symphony nationally, and engagements abroad with Austria’s Gross Orchester Graz, Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony, Finland’s Tampere Philharmonic, the Netherlands Philharmonic, NorrlandsOperan (Norrland’s Opera), the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and Sweden’s Göteborgs Symfoniker. Among her many North American guesting credits are appearances with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Colorado, Columbus, Florida, Fort Worth, Grand Rapids, Nashville, North Carolina, Oregon, Pacific, Phoenix, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. Overseas guesting credits include the principal Danish orchestras, the BBC Scottish Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and the Trondheim Symphony. U.S. summer music festivals credits include the Aspen Music Festival, Britt, Grand Teton, Wintergreen, and the Chautauqua Institute.

In addition to the 2012 Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras, Mei-Ann Chen’s skill on the podium, and as a music educator, has been recognized with several honors, awards and posts. In 2005 Ms. Chen became the first woman to win Copenhagen’s esteemed Malko Competition. She served as Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony and Baltimore Symphony, under the aegis of the League of American Orchestras, with the Oregon symphony as well. Recipient of the 2007 Taki Concordia Fellowship, she has appeared jointly with Marin Alsop and Stefan Sanderling in highly acclaimed subscription concerts with the Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony and Florida Orchestra. In 2002, Ms. Chen was unanimously selected as Music Director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic in Oregon, the oldest of its kind and a model for many youth orchestras in the United States. During her five-year tenure with the orchestra, she led its sold-out debut in Carnegie Hall, received an ASCAP award for innovative programming, and developed new and unique musicianship programs for the orchestra’s members. She was also the recipient of a Sunburst Award from Young Audiences for her contribution to music education.

Born in Taiwan, Mei-Ann Chen has lived in the United States since 1989. She was the first student in New England Conservatory’s history to receive master’s degrees, simultaneously, in both violin and conducting, later studying with Kenneth Kiesler at the University of Michigan, where she earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting. Ms. Chen also participated in the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C. and at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen.

Photo credit: Rosalie O’Connor

Tenured in 1993

Gary Long is Principal Timpanist of the Long Beach Symphony, Principal Timpanist of the Mainly Mozart Festival (San Diego), and Principal Percussionist of the San Bernardino Symphony. He is also on the teaching staff of California State University, San Bernardino as Lecturer in Percussion.

Gary has performed the Philip Glass Fantasy for Two Timpanist with The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The San Francisco Ballet, and The Long Beach Symphony. He has freelanced in Southern California orchestras such as The Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Pasadena Pops, Pacific Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Symphony in the Glen, and Redlands Bowl Orchestra presentations. Gary teaches private percussion lessons and is frequently heard in chamber music concerts throughout San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and Orange counties. In 1987 and 1988 Mr. Long was Principal Timpanist of the Nova Filarmonia Portuguesa, a chamber orchestra based in Lisbon, Portugal.

He received his musical training at the Juilliard School in New York City where he studied with Roland Kohloff and Buster Bailey, of the New York Philharmonic, receiving his Master of Music degree. He earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Oregon in 1985 and was a student of Charles Dowd.

Gary resides in Redlands with his cellist wife Becky, who teaches elementary music in the Redland’s School District, and his two aspiring musician daughters: Madeline and Hannah. He looks forward to future days when he’ll be able to continue to perform, but also spend more time pursuing his other interests: Percussion Instrument Refurbishing, golfing, gardening, woodworking, and collecting as many percussion instruments as he can fit into his garage!

Jamieson Price is a Long Beach actor and voice artist. He appeared with Jason Isaacs and Mel Gibson in The Patriot, and has been a guest star on Frasier, Days of Our Lives, Without a Trace, and According to Jim, and, most recently, on HBO’s new series Westworld.

Jamieson is the narrator the Long Beach Symphony’s educational outreach percussion ensemble in Long Beach elementary schools. He also announces the names of graduates for Commencement here at Cal State Long Beach and at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

His credits include the “Voice of God” in LA Opera’s bi-annual production of Benjamin Britten’s Noah’s Flood at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown LA; the voice of the villain “Dark Mayhem” on Nickelodeon’s The Thundermans; the audiobook, Exile, Texas by Roxanne Longstreet Conrad for Audible; and many characters in multiple campaigns of World of Warcraft, as well as a few for Starcraft 2. He provided the voice for the male Monk player character in the video game Diablo III, and his voice is heard on more than 200 different television programs, anime series, and video games, including Pair of Kings, Ever After High, Akira, Fate Zero, Metropolis, Halo, Transformers and Mortal Kombat, where he is the announcer as well as several additional characters.

Born in Toronto, violinist Ellen Jung has performed as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician all over the world.  She has been featured with the Korean Philharmonic, Taejon Symphony, Republic of Tatarstan Symphony, North York Symphony, and the University of Toronto Chamber and Symphony Orchestras.

As a member of the award-winning Jung Trio with her two sisters, Jennie and Julie, she has performed globally, won top prizes in numerous chamber music competitions including Fischoff and Yellow Springs, and released the trio’s first album with Groove Note Records in 2009. The Jung Trio has been selected to be featured as Debut Artists at the !0^th Annual iPalpiti Festival of International Laureates, Trio-In-Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Orford, Mozarteum and Norfolk Music Festivals.

Ms. Jung completed her Bachelor of Music in Performance at the University of Toronto, and earned a Master of Music and Artist Diploma from Yale University School of Music.

Currently, she resides in Los Angeles, and has been a member of the Long Beach Symphony since 2006.

Colby Benson is a vocalist, songwriter and performer from Hawaii, now based in Los Angeles, California. She is best known as the lead singer and founder of the all-girl band, “Crimson Apple”, who’s debut album, Hello, was nominated for three Na Hoku Hanohano Awards.

Colby began training and performing at the age of 9, and spent her early years in musical theater. Her highlights include Aida (Amneris), Once On This Island (Asaka), and High School Musical (Sharpay). At the age of 15, she was chosen as one of only 325 people out of over 100,000 who made it to American Idol’s Hollywood Week season 10. She’s recently recorded background vocals for Empire of the Sun, Aidan James, and Joni Llamedo. This past year she also made her debut with the Hawaii POPs and the Long Beach Symphony. One of her favorite accomplishments is having the opportunity to sing with Hawaiian legends, HAPA.

Colby has won numerous awards and contests, including winning 1st place vocalist for the Hawaii Stars and Catch a Rising Star competitions. Her awards for songwriting including 1st place in the Humane Society’s songwriting contest, 2nd in the Grammy Teens Make Music contest, and 3rd place in Ford’s National “Belt it Out” songwriting contest.

Colby currently studies voice under the direction of International Recording Artist, Kristian Lei.

Andrew Picken (B.A. University of California at Los Angeles, M.M. Northwestern University) teaches viola at the prestigious Colburn school in Los Angeles as well as from his private studio. Mr. Picken is Principal Viola of the Pasadena Symphony, Associate Principal Viola of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and Principal Viola of the Los Angeles Master Choral Orchestra. He has lent his talents to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Mr. Picken is a dedicated pedagogue. His students have matriculated in to many of the top music schools in the country including Juilliard, Oberlin Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Boston University, Colburn Conservatory, and USC. His students have won awards at numerous competitions, including the Johansen International, Mondavi Center Young Artists, Voce, Fischoff Chamber Music, Palisades Young Artists Award, and the Kiwanis Solo Competition in Los Angeles.

An avid chamber musician and founding member of the Pasadena String Quartet, Mr. Picken has performed with the Music Guild concert series in Bel Air, the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival, the Rocky Ridge Music Festival, Chamber Music Unbound, the Green Lake Music Festival, Sunday’s Live at LACMA, Lake Chelan Bach Festival, the Nevada Chamber Music Festival, the South Bay Chamber Music Series, the Seal Beach Chamber Music Festival, the Enlightenment Chamber Music Series, and has been an invited guest artist with the Felici Piano Trio, and the LaFayette String Quartet.

Mr. Picken also served as conductor of the Rocky Ridge Music Festival in Estes Park, Colorado, and he is the recipient of two Grammy Awards (Best Classical Recording and Best Opera Album. 2009) for LA Opera’s production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, released on DVD on the EuroArts label.

Drummer/percussionist/producer Steve Moretti is a two-time GRAMMY award nominee and winner of two Telly Awards. His performances have been described as “powerful” (World-Herald) and “full of subtle nuance and excitement” (Cleveland Classic). Steve has had an extensive recording career playing on over 30 nationally released recordings. He recently made his movie debut playing live in the 2014 Clint Eastwood film, Jersey Boys.

Recognized for his musicianship and versatility in multiple styles, Steve has performed with numerous vocal and instrumental artists from Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Jo Dee Messina, Arturo Sandoval, Toni Tennille, Lionel Hampton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lorna Luft, and Michael Brecker to The Coasters, The Pointer Sisters, The Temptations and Louie Bellson. He toured with Matt Catingub and the legendary Rosemary Clooney for six years and recorded two GRAMMY nominated CDs with them on Concord Records: Sentimental Journey and The Last Concert. He has appeared on the Today Show, The View, the Rosie O’Donnell Show and Christmas Special, and an NBC special, An Evening with Scott Hamilton and Friends, featuring Michael Feinstein and Darlene Love, as well as appearing on A&E, PBS, and Oregon “ArtBeat.”

Frequently engaged for symphonic drum set performances touring with Pops conductors Matt Catingub and Michael Krajewski, upcoming and recent concerts include the Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Colorado Springs, Dayton, Edmonton, Florida, Houston, Kitchener-Waterloo, Nashville, Omaha symphony orchestras, the Glendale Pops Orchestra, New Hampshire Music Festival, and Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra (Kobe, Japan).

Steve is co-founder, President & CEO and drummer for Macon Pops, a new pops orchestra he has created in his hometown of Macon, GA with his long-time collaborator, conductor/performer/arranger Matt Catingub.

Another facet of Steve’s career is his production company, Morettiman Music™. Recent projects include producing the music for the nationally televised PBS special A Grand Mercer Christmas and for the recordings of Hip-Hop artist Floco Torres, soprano Leah Partiridge, violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, and CityMusic Cleveland with cellist Matt Haimovitz, Daniel Rachev conducting, and a live, all-Mozart concert, Joel Smirnoff conducting.

Steve was musical arranger and producer for A Little More Soul, Macon’s Gateway Initiative inaugural project, and received a 2011 Telly Award for Sound Design (from 13,000 submissions), which was one of four Telly Awards received by the project. With the Gateway Initiative, he was honored by the American Advertising Federation for creative excellence with a 2010-2011 National Silver ADDY® Award (from 50,000 submissions) for A Little More Soul Music with Lyrics. The It’s Hotter Here campaign received nine local awards, including Best in Show, and advanced to win District Gold for Best Sound. In 2012, Steve was again recognized with a Telly Award for Sound Design, this time for the CD recording of Hip Hop artist Floco Torres.

Steve is a Creative Team Member of the Atlanta-based music licensing company, Placement Music. Their music was featured on Super Bowl XLV, XLVII (Declaration Anthem and Heart of Independence), Fox Sports, NASCAR, Mean Girls 2, Drop Dead Diva and can be heard at the Georgia Dome during the Atlanta Falcons’ games.

Currently serving his second term on the Board of Governors of the Atlanta Chapter of the GRAMMY Recording Academy and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Otis Redding Foundation, Steve is endorsed by Pearl Drums, Paiste Cymbals, Aquarian Drum Heads, Audix Microphones, Future Sonics Ear Monitors and Vic Firth Sticks. His Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance is from the University of Redlands and his Master of Arts in Music Performance is from California State University at Hayward.

Photo credit: Maryann Bates

Born and raised in Montana, Aaron C. Finley’s career has spanned from coast to coast as a professional actor and singer. Educated at Pacific Lutheran University in Seattle, he quickly became at top-tier talent in the Pacific Northwest, appearing in productions of Jesus Christ Superstar (Jesus/Judas), Rent (Roger), Fiddler on the Roof (Perchik), Hairspray (Link Larkin), It Shoulda Been You (Greg Madison) and The Gypsy King (Drago). Among his other regional roles, Aaron originated the role of Billy in the new musical Diner, based on the Barry Levinson film, with music and lyrics by Sheryl Crow and direction by Kathleen Marshall.

Aaron made his Broadway debut in 2013, starring as Drew Boley in Rock of Ages. Earlier this year he took over the role of leading man Brian Howard in It Shoulda Been You, directed by David Hyde Pierce. Among his other work in New York , he participated in a lab production of George Takei’s new musical, Allegiance. He has currently been working on a pops symphony concert celebrating the music of the 1980s that will be performed by symphonies across North America.