Meet the Phil
About Us
The Michigan Philharmonic has been bringing award-winning live symphonic music to southeast Michigan since 1945 through innovative concerts and youth education programs.
Our Board
Executive Committee
Donald Soenen, Interim President — President, PARC
Narendra Sheth, Vice President — Retired, Ford Motor Company
Kevin Nelson, Vice President — Shareholder, Tiffany & Bosco
Aaron Reeder, Treasurer — Senior Vice President, Wayne Market Manager, Bank of Ann Arbor
Kevin Ryan, Secretary — Community Program Director, Partnership for the Arts & Humanities
Board of Directors
Dr. Sam Barresi — Former Asst. Superintendent, Wayne Westland Schools
Art Beard — Chief Digital & Information Officer, Orsa Credit Union
Chris Belcher, Past President — Retired wealth management trust officer
Steve Chrypinski — Retired, Michigan Public/NPR
Rebecca Journigan — Administrator, Michigan Medicine
Michele Kelly, PhD — Chief Academic Instruction Officer, Schoolcraft College
Sheila Osann — Retired founder, marketing & communications firm
Our Team
Leadership
Nan Washburn — Music Director & Conductor
Artistic & Production
Chris Wheeler — Personnel Manager & Music Librarian
Michael Grabowski — Production Manager
Rick Stanley — Production
Emily Bissell — Production
Communications & Design
Julie Nyhus — Nyhus Designs
ArtOps — Marketing & Communications
Box Office & Volunteers
Mary Tavana — Patron Services Coordinator
Lisa Kaberna — Volunteer Coordinator
Finance
Amy Fox — Business Manager
Youth Education
Nancy Davidson — Education Programs Coordinator
Nan Washburn — Advisor, MPYO
Hektor Qyteti — Conductor, MPYO
Kevin Naeve — Conductor, MPYO
Meet the Conductor
Nan Washburn
Winner of The American Prize in Orchestral Conducting, professional division 2013, the American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music, professional division, 2016, and 19 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming from the League American Orchestras, Nan Washburn is one of the most innovative and dynamic conductors working in the U.S. today. In 2025, she also led the Michigan Philharmonic to win the highly competitive national award, the American Prize in Orchestral Performance, professional division.
For her engaging performances and fresh approach to concert programming, critics have hailed her work as having “perspicacity, nerve, imagination and all-round savvy.”
Nan is celebrating her 28th season as the Music Director and Conductor of the Michigan Philharmonic. Under her leadership, the orchestra has experienced unprecedented growth in artistic excellence and in the scope and diversity of its programs throughout Southeast Michigan. National recognition for the orchestra during Washburn’s tenure includes 6 ASCAP Awards, several prestigious grants from Knight Foundation and 2nd Place honors from The American Prize, professional orchestra division.
From 2009-2017 she also served as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for the Michigan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, an ensemble that she founded in 2003. For five years she was the Artistic Director and Conductor of the West Hollywood Orchestra. She has also held the posts as Music Director of Orchestra Sonoma, the Camellia Symphony in Sacramento, Principal Conductor of the Channel Islands Symphony, the Acalanes Chamber Orchestra, the American Jazz Theater, and Director of the San Francisco State University Symphony Orchestra. She made her opera conducting debut in Los Angeles with the full production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with the El Dorado Opera Company. In 2017, she returned to California to make her debut with the San Luis Obispo Symphony.
For her pioneering work, Washburn has been featured on National Public Radio, in WESTWAYS MAGAZINE, COASTLINES MAGAZINE, SAN FRANCISCO FOCUS MAGAZINE and the League of American Orchestra’s SYMPHONY MAGAZINE. She has worked with and performed works by many of the leading composers in the U.S. today, including Ned Rorem, Libby Larsen, Ellen Zwilich, Zhou Long, John Corigliano, Joan Tower, Frank Ticheli, Alvin Singleton, Chen Yi, Lou Harrison, Tobias Picker, Lowell Liebermann, Harold Farberman, Alice Gomez, Michael Daugherty, Jennifer Higdon, and Mary Watkins. Notable soloists include Sharon Robinson, Donald McInnes, Norman Fischer, Kaaren Erickson, Geraldine Walther, Judy Collins, Mark O’Conner, Mason Williams, Jason Graae, Jo Anne Worley, Bruce Vilanch, Ann Hampton Callaway, Jason Graae, Blair Underwood, John Walz and Sharon Isbin.
Born in Denver and raised in Southern California, Nan Washburn has conducted throughout the United States, including the symphony orchestras of Richmond, Sacramento, Wyoming, Eugene, Berkeley, Marin, Cheyenne, Dubuque, Perrysburg, Stockton and Napa Valley. Other guest appearances have been with Oregon Mozart Players, Women’s Philharmonic, Colorado and California All State Honor Orchestras, the University of Michigan Philharmonia and the Firelands Symphony in Sandusky, Ohio.
Washburn first came to national attention as a co-founder, the Artistic Director and Associate Conductor of the San Francisco-based Women’s Philharmonic from 1980 to 1990, during which time she became one of the leading authorities on and advocates for orchestral works of women composers. She researched and reconstructed historical scores, commissioned new works, and programmed and performed dozens of works by women. In addition, she created some of the orchestra’s most successful projects, such as their educational concerts and the New Music Reading Sessions and was also Musical Producer of their first CD.
Washburn earned her Bachelor’s of Music with highest honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara, receiving the Chancellor’s Scholar Award, and earned her Master’s degree in performance from New England Conservatory of Music. She received the Alan Marlowe Memorial Woodwind Award while attending the Music Academy of the West.
A professional flutist for a number of years, Washburn began her studies in conducting in 1984 working with Denis de Coteau at CSU Hayward, and continued studies with Harold Farberman for three years at the Conductors Institute, and at the Aspen Music Festival as a scholarship student of Paul Vermel. In addition, she has participated in several masterclasses, working with Daniel Lewis, Gustav Meier, Donald Thulean, and Lawrence Leighton Smith. During the summer of 2002, she was on the faculty at the Conductors Institute at Bard College in New York.
Washburn has been honored with the Distinguished Service Award from New York Women Composers, the Sonoma County Independent Indy Award, the Girl Scout Role Model Award, Outstanding Local Hero Award from KQED, San Francisco and the Women’s Foundation of California and has been recognized among “Women in Leadership” by the city of West Hollywood, honored as an Sigma Alpha Iota National Arts Associate and recently received Jeanine C. Rae Award for the Advancement of Women’s Culture.
As the second-longest running conductor in the Philharmonic’s 80-year history, Nan Washburn remains an iconic leader of our cultural jewel.
For more information please visit nanwashburn.com.
ORCHESTRATING THE EXTRAORDINARY
Mission Statement
The mission of the Michigan Philharmonic is to enrich the communities of southeastern Michigan by fostering excellence and innovation in the performance of orchestral music, to educate current and future audiences, and to bring distinction to our community through the regional presence and standing of our professional performing ensembles.
Our History
In the spring of 1945, Plymouth residents Carl and Evelyn Groschke invited friends to their home to join them in playing instrumental music. They formed a string ensemble, and Evelyn performed with the new orchestra for many years under the name of Evelyn Woods.
At the same time, Paul Wagner, director of the Plymouth High School music program, was working to organize a community orchestra. He joined forces with the Groschkes, creating the Plymouth Symphony Orchestra (PSO). The PSO gave its first live public performance on April 20, 1947.
The PSO performed its first concerts in the auditorium at Plymouth High School (later Central Middle School, known today as PARC) and on the school lawn. In 1952, the symphony moved its performances to the new high school gym.
By the mid-1950s, the orchestra often performed summer outdoor concerts at the Pino Farm (later known as Plymouth Colony Farms) in Plymouth Township, under the baton of Wayne Dunlap. Dunlap conducted the PSO for 28 years (1951-1979), the longest-serving conductor of the orchestra to date.
In the 1960s, the symphony performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the first time and performed in downtown Detroit at the Ford Auditorium for the first time.
In 1999, the PSO hired Nan Washburn as its new conductor, bringing a special innovative flair to the PSO’s concert programming. In 2003, Nan founded the Celebration Youth Orchestra, which became the cornerstone of the PSO’s youth education programs.
In 2011, the PSO rebranded as the Michigan Philharmonic to better reflect its regional reach and approach to offering music throughout southeast Michigan. In 2015, after several years at the Plymouth Arts Council, the Michigan Philharmonic returned to its original home at the Plymouth Arts & Recreation Complex (PARC).
Throughout its history, the Michigan Philharmonic has been dedicated to developing students and young musicians. The CLASSical Music education program reaches over 5,000 students in western Wayne County schools. Since 2003, the Michigan Philharmonic has also operated the Michigan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (MPYO), formerly the Celebration Youth Orchestra (CYO). Today, more than 75 students each year participate in the MPYO, performing both their own concerts and side-by-side with the Michigan Philharmonic.
The Michigan Philharmonic has received six ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming by the League of American Orchestras — one of only 26 orchestras recognized nationally with such an award. In 2025, The Michigan Phil and conductor Nan Washburn were awarded The American Prize 1st Place in Orchestral Performance — Professional Division.