b'Yutaka Kono Asiat (Ace) AliConductor, Vermont Youth Philharmonia Conductor, Vermont Youth StringsA versatile musician, Dr. Yutaka Kono is a highly active conductor as the DirectorA siat Ali is the String Instructor for the Essex Junction Public Schools where he of Orchestra/Associate Professor of Music at the University of Vermont andteaches beginning through middle school strings and conducts the Essex High the conductor of the Vermont Youth Philharmonia at the Vermont Youth OrchestraSchool Orchestra. A member of the Vermont Youth Orchestra Associations artistic staff, Association. He has recently been appointed as the Music Director of the Orchestra ofhe currently directs the Vermont Youth Strings, and he is the former director of the Central Tokyo, whose debut concert was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.beginning string ensemble Presto. He also served as interim conductor of the Vermont He was also the Artistic Director of the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, a professionalYouth Sinfonia. He has guest conducted district string orchestras in Vermont, New orchestra based in Vermont. Before moving to Vermont, he was the Assistant ConductorHampshire, and New York. In addition, he teaches a private studio of violin and viola of the Kingsville Symphony Orchestra (TX) which he conducted the season-openingstudents. concerts from 2007-2011. Dr. Kono previously taught at Texas A&M University- As a violinist, Asiat was a member of the Burlington Chamber Orchestra and has Kingsville, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the University of Mary Hardin- performed with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, Baylor in Belton, Texas. In the summer of 2018, Maestra Diane Wittry chose Dr. Kono tothe Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra, the University of Vermont Orchestra and the be one of the conducting fellows to assist the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. His recentBurlington Choral Society. Asiat began his violin instruction in the third grade with honors include the Third Place Winner of The American Prize for orchestral conductingMelissa Brown in the same school system where he now teaches. At the University of in the College/University Division, and the finalist of the Youth and ProfessionalVermont, he earned his Violin Performance Degree as a student of Thomas and Evelyn divisions. Read. He then continued his violin studies for two years with Phillipe Quesnel at the Dr. Kono has studied conducting with Jerry Junkin, Mark Kelly, Eugene Dowdy, PeterConservatoire National de Region in Rouen, France.Bay, and Silas Huff. He was selected to attend the Summer Conductors Institute at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Maestro Neil Varon and conducted the Rochester Philharmonic.He received a Bachelor of Music magna cum laude from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and a Master of Music from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He then became the first person ever to receive a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Tuba Performance from the University of Texas at Austin. 16 17'