FACULTY (past & present)
STAFF
Co-Director Bahman Saless
Bahman Saless started his dual career as composer and physicist during his teen years in England. After obtaining his A-level and O-level certificates in music, mathematics and physics, Dr. Saless immigrated to the United States in 1977. He received his BS in Physics from Michigan State University, in 1981 while studying violin at the same time. He then pursued a career as a physicist, obtaining his Doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Colorado in 1987. During his graduate study, Dr. Saless was a member of Boulder Philharmonic orchestra and founder of The Principia Quartet in Boulder. In 1989, after having served as physics lecturer at the Colorado school of mines and a research scientist for NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Dr. Saless moved to Los Angeles to continue his dual ambitions by working as a physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and enrolling in film scoring studies at UCLA. In 1990, Dr. Saless’ guitar trio, Mexican Moonlight, won the Pacific Composer’s Forum composition Competition. After completing his studies at UCLA in 1991, Dr. Saless worked as a composer of film trailers and teasers with Universal Studios as well as other Hollywood production houses. His works include trailer music for films such as Carlito’s Way, Romeo is Bleeding, and Beethoven 2nd. Having spent years away from his beloved Colorado, Dr. Saless and his wife moved back to Boulder in 1994.
In 2004, Dr. Saless founded the Boulder Chamber Orchestra where he is music director, and in 2010 he co-founded the International Conducting Institute in order to help further the art of conducting.
Co-Director Silas Nathaniel Huff
Silas Nathaniel Huff is Director of Orchestras at Washburn University (Topeka, KS), Music Director of the Colorado Pops Orchestra, Commander & Conductor of the 44th Army Band (Albuquerque, NM), and Co-Director of the International Conducting Institute. Maestro Huff has conducted across the US and Europe, and his past positions include Music Director of the Astoria Symphony Orchestra (NYC) and Round Rock Symphony Orchestra (TX), Director of the U.S. Army Orchestra (DC), Associate Director of the Boulder Chamber Orchestra (CO), Assistant Conductor of the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra (VA), Conductor of Moscow Ballet’s U.S.A. east coast tours, and Associate Producer of Opera at the Manhattan School of Music. As a U.S. Army Music Officer, Major Huff has conducted concerts at the White House, U.S. Capitol, Arlington National Cemetery, Pentagon, and other important monuments and landmarks in Washington, D.C., on tour for audiences numbering in the thousands, and in recordings and broadcasts that were seen by millions of viewers.
Maestro Huff holds degrees from Texas State University, UCLA, and University of Colorado Boulder, and also studied at the Trossingen Hochschule für Musik (Germany), L’Institut Musical Provence-Aubagne (France), and California State University Long Beach.