Winston Dan Vogel

Who is Winston Dan Vogel?

Winston Dan Vogel is an American conductor, born in Israel.

Vogel was the musical director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 1990. As of 2006 he is president of Opera USA, a non-profit organization which encourages young talents in the field of vocal performance.

He has distinguished himself on six continents as a dynamic conductor, forceful orchestra builder, imaginative program creator, composer and effective lecturer. As past music director and conductor of both the Virginia Symphony and the Shore Festival of Classics in New Jersey, his dedicated leadership, popularity and unanimous critical acclaim have increased box-office sales and markedly augmented attendance. First Prize winner of the prestigious Malko Competition in Denmark and prize-winner in Rome's Santa Cecilia Competition, the Cantelli Competition in Milan and Citta di Sorrento International Competition, Maestro Vogel has conducted symphony orchestras, opera, ballet and choirs throughout the world with leading stars including Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Lynn Harrell, Rudolf Firkushny, Janos Starker, Roberta Peters, Tito Gobbi, Andre-Michel Schub, Mikhail Barishnikov and Rudolf Nureyev.

In recent years he has conducted in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Lithuania, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Italy, Colombia, Costa Rica, Japan, China, Russia and the UK and his first three CDs of Italian, Swiss and American music were released on the Dynamic and VDE-Gallo labels. Maestro Vogel holds degrees in piano and conducting from the Israel Academy of Music in Tel Aviv, the Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music in New York and a Master's Degree from Ball State University in Indiana. He has studied with Markevitch, Ferrara, Lert, Bamberger, Fournet and Morel and has participated in conducting seminars in Salzburg, Asilomar, Lugano, Hilversum, Siena and Monte Carlo. At the invitation of the American-Israeli Cultural Foundation Vogel returned to his native Israel to conduct the Israel National Opera and subsequently became the conductor of the Haifa Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic Choir and the Kibbutz Artzi Choir with which he toured Europe.