Leadership
Petko Dimitrov is the Music Director of the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Dimitrov also serves as Assistant Conductor of the Haddonfield Symphony and Principle Guest Conductor of the New Symphony Orchestra in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2007, the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation awarded Petko its prestigious emerging conductor award.
Petko was born in 1973. He took his first music lessons at the age of seventeen from his grandfather, a choral conductor, arranger, and composer. He graduated the State Academy of Music in 2000 with a Bachelor Degree in Music Pedagogy. In his native Bulgaria he also studied orchestra conducting with Ivan Bakalov, Vassil Kazandjiev, and Rossen Milanov. Petko made his debut as a conductor with the New Symphony Orchestra, Sofia, Bulgaria, in May 1998, performing a concert with music by Sir Michael Tippet and Henry Purcell, in collaboration with The British Council. Since then he has been an assistant Conductor of the Orchestra and has performed subscription concerts and commissions regularly. He has also been active as a Conductor of a Chamber Ensemble of The New Symphony Orchestra.
Since 2001 Petko Dimitrov has been studying and working in the United States. In 2004 he completed his Master Degree in Orchestra Conducting at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under the direction of Prof. Kenneth Kiesler. During his time in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he performed concerts with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Campus Philharmonia Orchestra, and Campus Symphony Orchestra.
Recently, Petko completed his studies with Prof. Gustav Meier at the Peabody Conservatory, John Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, where he pursued a Graduate Performance Diploma in Orchestral Conducting. As an assistant conductor of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra Mr. Dimitrov took over a performance of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring with only three days notice.
Suzanne Corey-Sahlin is Principal Violist of the Ridgefield and Norwalk Symphony Orchestras, where she has also performed as soloist. Suzanne has studied with Albert Markov, Jesse Levine and Robert Glazer, formerly with the Chicago Symphony, and two years with the Manhattan String Quartet at Music Mountain. She was also a member of the Tourmaline String Quartet. This Quartet performed extensively throughout the Fairfield County and New York areas. Suzanne has freelanced extensively throughout the United States and has also performed in Gershwin’s, Porgy and Bess and Phantom of the Opera throughout Japan and South America.
Mrs. Corey-Sahlin is a member of Trio Delle Corde and the Cypress Piano Quartet. She teaches privately in Ridgefield, Connecticut and at her studio at the Music Source in Greenwich, Connecticut, and is a faculty member of the Waterville Valley Chamber Music Summer Festival in New Hampshire. She was appointed music director of the Ridgefield Symphony Junior Orchestra, now the Western Connecticut Junior Orchestra, in 2005.
The Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra