Hugh Keelan

Who is Hugh Keelan?

Hugh Keelan was born in Kingston upon Thames, England and has served as the musical director and conductor of prominent American orchestras. He is a pianist and violinist. He is also an arranger of music.

Keelan served as conductor of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic for fifteen years, and music director of the Erie Philharmonic from 2000 to 2006. He was preceded at Erie by Peter Bay, who served from 1996 to 2000, and was replaced in 2007 by Daniel Meyer of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. As of 2006, Keelan was conductor of the Blanche Moyse Chorale at the Brattleboro Music Center in Brattleboro, Vermont.

He has been guest conductor of orchestras around the world.

On leaving Felsted School he studied music at Cambridge University and conducting at both Indiana University and Mannes College. He was tutored in New York under Vladimir Kin, who was influenced by the Leningrad school of Evgeny Mravinsky and Nikolai Rabinovich.

He worked at the Juilliard American Opera Center at the Juilliard School in New York while studying with Mr. Kin.