James Bagwell maintains an active schedule throughout the United States as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral literature. Mr. Bagwell has trained choruses for a number of major American orchestras, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and the Asheville (NC) Symphony. He has worked with such noted conductors as James Conlon, Raymond Leppard, Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Leon Fleischer, Leon Botstein, Christof Perick, Imre Pallo, and Robert Shaw.

Dessoff is honored that pianist Steven Ryan has been its regular accompanist, occasional sectional conductor, and featured keyboard soloist for ten seasons.

Photo: Chris Lee

Kent Tritle is one of the leading choral conductors in New York City today. Under his eight years of leadership, The Dessoff Choirs presented a wide array of choral repertoire from Monteverdi to Menotti; appeared with pre-eminent artists Marilyn Horne, Tony Randall, Susanne Mentzer, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Tan Dun, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Vladimir Spivakov, Leonard Slatkin, Gerard Schwarz, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, Dennis Russell Davies, Paul McCreesh, and Leon Botstein; won the 1999 ASCAP/Chorus America award for adventurous programming of contemporary music; and appeared on PBS in the nationally broadcast "Live from Lincoln Center."