Music Director

Matthew Oberstein

The 2012-2013 season marks Matthew Oberstein’s first as Music Director and Conductor of the Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey; he is only the second in the PSNJ’s history.  He is Principal Conductor of the Artemis Chamber Ensemble, Principal Guest Conductor of the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, and previously served as Assistant Conductor of Regina Opera.  He was in residence with the Vienna Philharmonic at the 2009 Salzburg Festival as winner of the Ansbacher Fellowship for Young Conductors.  Recent engagements have included collaborations with the Kronos Quartet, Westchester Philharmonic, Slovak Sinfonietta Zilina, New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, South Shore Symphony, Riverside Orchestra, New Rochelle Opera, SYREN Modern Dance, and Purchase Dance Corps.

Mr. Oberstein has served as assistant to conductor Jane Glover in performances by the Chicago Opera Theatre at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and at The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. He is founder and conductor of the Purchase Chamber Orchestra and Purchase Pops, and recently returned to his alma mater as guest conductor of the Purchase Chorus. He is a recipient of the 2005 State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence and the Purchase College President’s Award for Achievement. He was awarded the Tilles Scholar Award by the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts and the Special Conductor’s Award at the C.W. Post Chamber Music Festival.

Mr. Oberstein has participated in master classes and workshops with such notable conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, Donald Thulean, Daniel Lewis, John Farrer, Neil Thompson, Larry Rachleff and Harold Farberman. His principal teachers have been Mark Stringer, Yuji Yuasa, Miriam Burns, Michael Adelson, Scott Jackson Wiley and the late Jesse Levine; piano studies with Stephanie Brown.

Mr. Oberstein’s graduate and undergraduate studies were completed at Purchase College, State University of New York, with a postgraduate diploma from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.