Troy Peters is a dynamic conductor noted for committed performances in a wide range of repertoire. As Music Director and Conductor of the Vermont Youth Orchestra since 1995, he has overseen a period of tremendous growth and received national acclaim for innovative programming. He is equally respected for his work with professional orchestras, and he has been a frequent and popular guest conductor with many groups including the Vermont Mozart Festival, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and the Vermont Philharmonic. Peters has also gained international attention for his orchestral collaborations with Trey Anastasio, guitarist and composer from the rock band Phish. Under the leadership of Troy Peters, the Vermont Youth Orchestra received three consecutive ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music and has grown from two orchestras to four, more than doubling its student population. Peters was also a key player in the $2 million renovation of the VYO’s new home, the Elley-Long Music Center at Saint Michael’s College. Before coming to Vermont in 1995, he worked with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra for seven years, serving as Assistant Conductor and Director of Chamber Music and conducting the orchestra on four international tours to Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, Wales, Jordan, Israel, and Spain. He is the former Artistic Director and Conductor of the Pacific Chamber Soloists (Tacoma, Washington) and the former Artistic Director of Perpetuum Mobile (Philadelphia). A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Pennsylvania, he has also participated in numerous conducting workshops and clinics. Throughout his career, Peters has been consistently committed to music education. He has become a popular clinician and conductor for district, regional, and All-State orchestras around the U.S. He also has extensive experience with other youth orchestras, college and university orchestras, and community orchestras. A popular lecturer and teacher, he has presented pre-concert lectures and music appreciation classes for many groups, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Peters is also busy as a composer, where his work ranges from orchestral and chamber music to a large body of songs and an opera for hand puppets. Among his honors are the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and grants from Meet the Composer and the Rockefeller Foundation. His composition teachers included Ned Rorem and George Crumb. A versatile instrumentalist, Peters not only plays the viola, but has also performed on tenor banjo and electric guitar with symphony orchestras. He was born in 1969 in Greenock, Scotland, of American parents.