Directors
Dr. Elisse La Barre
Musicologist and conductor Elisse La Barre specializes in 20th-century American music, specifically massed spectacles and geopolitics. She received her PhD in cultural musicology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Her dissertation, Music of American World’s Fairs: Music, Protest and Politics at the 1939 and 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition, is an unprecedented cross-disciplinary investigation into how music reflects the social, political and cultural consciousness of regional and global communities at the beginning of World War II.
La Barre lectures on Performance Rights Organizational history as well as popular music (US and International), rock n’ roll & jazz, world music, music business and theory. She consults for orchestral audition preparations and film projects for historical musical accuracy.
Dr. Leslie La Barre
California-based composer and conductor Leslie La Barre specializes in multidisciplinary collaborations, instrumental conducting, film orchestral literature, and musicology. Her catalog includes works for a myriad of ensembles including original works for dance, choral, chamber ensembles, and symphonic orchestras.
With a background in jazz piano, percussion, oboe and English Horn, her music blends the respective elements of both jazz and classical genres. She thrives on writing kinetic music that uses distinctive aural-architectural compositional techniques. As a conductor, La Barre has directed such orchestras as the USC Thornton Symphony, Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, Santa Clara University Orchestra, Las Positas Symphonic Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble.