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Harold (Hal) Weller is the Founding Music Director & Conductor Laureate of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Weller retired on June 30, 2007 completing a distinguished forty-five year career as music director of orchestras in Ohio, Virginia, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. Weller is also the Founding Music Director of the Ashland (Oh) Symphony and the Old Dominion (Va) Symphony as well as Conductor Laureate of the Flagstaff (Az) Symphony.
Now at age 68, Hal has turned his attention to the Foundation to Assist Young Musicians (FAYM) he created in 2007 that assists with the education and career development of talented and needy young musicians world wide. As an arts advocate and activist, he currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Conductors Guild, the Nevada Arts Council, the Nevada School of the Arts, and the Las Vegas Youth Orchestras.
Born in Dayton Ohio on July 6, 1941, Weller holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Miami (OH) University and an MA from The Ohio State University. He also studied at the Oberlin and Cincinnati Conservatories of Music. He began his professional conducting career at age 20, when he was engaged to conduct opera at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. His conducting teachers include Orion Dalley, A. Clyde Roller, Richard Lert, Haig Yaghjian and mentors Paul Katz, Max Rudolf, and George Szell.
The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Weller was presented the 2003 Achievement Award in Arts & Entertainment from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. Other honors include the Governor's Award (New Mexico) and Flagstaff's Citizen of the Year Award in 1991. In 1995 Flagstaff's Lowell Observatory named an asteroid in his honor. The Mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar B. Goodman, proclaimed October 9, 2005 as 'Harold Weller Day' in Las Vegas and again on June 30, 2007 in recognition of Hal's many contributions and accomplishments for the arts in Las Vegas.
Married with two sons and two grandchildren, Hal and his wife Betsy take great pleasure in the activities of their active family.
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