BOB HASTY
The ISCMS Orchestra is led by Bob Hasty. Robert G. Hasty is the Music Director of the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra and the conductor of the UCF Symphony and Chamber Orchestras at the University of Central Florida School of Performing Arts where he serves as Director of Orchestral Activities. He is also Artistic Director of the International Schools Choral Music Society. For 22 years, Hasty conducted the Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia at the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University where he also served as the Associate Director of Orchestras.
About Us
ISCMS has existed since 2007 as an organisation to bring together students and teachers from International Schools across Asia and The Middle East to make exceptional music in some of the best concert halls in the world.
DAVID SQUIRE
The ISCMS Choir is led by David Squire. David is one of New Zealand’s most prominent conductors, and Music Director of the New Zealand Youth Choir. Chair of the New Zealand Association of Choral Directors, he is also a national conducting advisor and tutor, and a governance board member of the New Zealand Choral Federation.
NATHANIEL GAO
The ISCMS Big Band is led by Nathaniel Gao. Nathaniel Gao is a saxophonist and composer who has been based in Beijing since 2006. He has been a key contributor to the local jazz scene as both a co-leader of the quintet Red Hand as well as a leader of his own quartet and trio. Additionally, Gao has been active in an eclectic range of other musical projects including Three Sergeants Syndrome. He has performed at the Ninegates Jazz Festival, the MIDI Jazz Festival, the Ditan Park Music Festival, and at major venues in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Gao graduated from UNI in 2006 with BA in music performance and in 2011 completed an MA in jazz performance at the City College of New York.
DEBORAH PRITCHARD - Composer
Deborah Pritchard is a British composer known for her concert works and synaesthesia, receiving a British Composer Award for her solo violin piece Inside Colour in 2017. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales premiered her large orchestral work The Angel Standing in the Sun in 2016 and her violin concerto Calandra was premiered by Jennifer Pike and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in 2022. Her music has been performed worldwide by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Singers, Gesualdo Six, Marian Consort and the Choir of New College Oxford. She has been broadcast by BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and commercially released by NMC, Signum, Nimbus, BIS, Hyperion, Orchid Classics and Linn Records. After completing her MMus at the Royal Academy of Music, Deborah received her DPhil from Worcester College, University of Oxford and holds Associate Membership of both The Faculty of Music, Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music. She held the tenure of Visiting Fellow at Keble College, University of Oxford from 2022-2023. Her new piece Kandinsky Songs will be premiered at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, China in 2024.