About Us
MAESTRO ISTVAN JARAY
Celebrating 27 Years Leading the JSO
Istvan Jaray, Music Director of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, is an internationally acclaimed conductor. He has regularly appeared in concert halls in Europe, Canada and the United States in the last twenty years. His dynamic leadership has brought the JSO to the rank of a high quality Metropolitan Orchestra.
Born in Hungary, Maestro Jaray has guest conducted major orchestras in his homeland including the Concert Orchestra of Budapest, the Savaria Symphony and the Debrecen Philharmonic. He also conducted the Radio and Television Orchestra of Zagreb, Croatia. Because of the overwhelming success, he was invited back to conduct the Zagreb Philharmonic. Other guest conducting appearances include performances with the Symphonies of Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Baton Rouge, Binghamton, Brussels Radio Symphony, Orchestra Sinfonica Di Sanremo in Italy, the North Bay and the Victoria Symphonies in Canada, Cukorova State Symphony in Adana, Turkey, Pittsburgh Opera Theatre, Wisconsin Ballet and the Milwaukee Ballet. In 2003, he made a second guest conducting appearance with the Debrecen Philharmonic. In the summer of 2006, he guest conducted the Slovak State Philharmonic at the Zemplen Festival in Hungary and Slovakia. In July 2007 and August 2008, he guest conducted the Woodstock Mozart Festival in Woodstock, Illinois to great acclaim. He will conduct a Liszt Bi-Centennial Concert upon his return to Woodstock in August 2011.
At the age of five, Jaray began to study the violin, later graduating from the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he also studied piano, composition, and conducting under the direction of Zoltan Kodaly and Gyorgy Ligeti. After leaving Hungary in 1956, Jaray enrolled at London's Royal College of Music, where he studied conducting with Sir Adrian Boult. Following four years as a member of the British National Opera Orchestra, he free-lanced with the London Symphony, London Philharmonic and BBC Orchestra. This gave him the opportunity to work with Maestri Monteux, C. Davis, Giulini, and Dorati. It was at this time that Jaray formed his own Chamber Opera Company, the Opera Comique.
After joining the Vancouver (Canada) Symphony, Jaray met Otto Werner Mueller, who became his mentor and colleague. They accepted positions on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Concurrently, Maestro Jaray became Music Director of the Waukesha and Fox Valley Symphonies. Ten years later, he accepted a faculty position at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There he led the Carnegie-Mellon Philharmonic, taking the orchestra to Carnegie Hall for its New York debut, which received great critical acclaim.
Jaray is also the Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Livingston Symphony Orchestra in Livingston, New Jersey. He also conducts Johnstown Symphony Youth Orchestra. He was the recipient of the 2005 Greater Johnstown Chamber of Commerce “Cultural Affairs Award”. In 2005, he was inducted into the Bottleworks Ethnic Arts Center (Johnstown) “Artists Hall of Fame.”
Maestro Jaray offers a unique musical experience to both the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and the community at large. Under his leadership there have been many changes in the scope of the Orchestra's programs, productions of fully-staged opera, ballet and musicals featuring local talent, free pops concerts, annual Young People`s Concerts and a bi-annual Young Artist's Competition.
Maestro Jaray lives in Johnstown, and is married to Renee Shaw. He is an avid tennis player and gourmet cook.
