Feedback from our audience, musicians, and board will all factor into which conductor becomes JCSO’s next music director. Attend all of our concerts this season and fill out our audience surveys to make your voice heard!
Paul Bhasin
American conductor Paul Bhasin serves as Director of Orchestral studies at Emory University, where he holds the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Professorship in Music. In this capacity, he conducts the Emory University Symphony Orchestra and the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra, oversees music research programs, and teaches conducting.
Praised for his “crisp, clear” conducting and “highly expressive” interpretations, Bhasin’s career began when he won the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition. Bhasin serves as music director and conductor of the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival and has recently led performances with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, “President’s Own” United States Marine Band, at Interlochen, the Kennedy Center, and throughout the People’s Republic of China.
Bhasin’s compositions, transcriptions, and arrangements have been praised by The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, with recent performances by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Opera Theater, and others, which can be heard on Amazon Prime Video, Apple Music, and Spotify.
Bhasin has recorded as trumpeter and conductor for the Centaur and Interscope record labels. He received his musical training from Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin.
Henry Cheng
Henry Cheng is an internationally recognized conductor whose work brings together musical excellence, cultural curiosity, and a deep commitment to community. Winner of the Antal Doráti International Conducting Competition and the European Union Conducting Competition, Cheng has led performances across Europe, Asia, and North America with ensembles such as the La Scala Chamber Orchestra and the Tonyeong International Music Festival Ensemble.
His projects often reimagine the concert experience—whether through Classical K-pop, which bridges the worlds of BTS and Beethoven, or Minecraft x In C, a music education initiative merging minimalist composition with digital interactivity. Cheng has also collaborated with Justice Desk Africa, a South African human rights organization inspired by Nelson Mandela’s legacy, using music as a tool for healing, empowerment, and cross-cultural understanding.
In addition to his work on the podium, Cheng composes and produces interdisciplinary performances that fuse sound, movement, and visual storytelling. Often developed in collaboration with dancers, technologists, and visual artists, his work has been featured at venues such as the Berliner Festspiele, the Singapore Art Museum, the Steirischer Herbst Festival, and the Kaohsiung Performing Arts Center. These projects explore themes of presence, memory, and transformation, creating experiences that move across the boundaries of genre and tradition.
Cheng’s artistic leadership is shaped by a simple question: how can an orchestra be of greatest service to its community? Whether through interdisciplinary programming, school partnerships, or creative audience engagement, his work reflects a belief in music as a shared space for connection, reflection, and imagination.
He studied at Georgia State University, the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, and the University of the Arts in Berlin.
Howard Hsu
Howard Hsu is Music Director of the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra and serves as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Orchestra Studies at Valdosta State University. Under his leadership, the Valdosta Symphony was selected as the 2014 winner of the American Prize in Orchestral Performance (community division).
Hsu conducted the world premiere of James Oliverio’s Trumpet Concerto No. 1: World House; the U.S. premiere of Ned McGowan’s Concerto for iPad and Orchestra (Rotterdam Concerto 2); and the Georgia premieres of Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Hartford, Fox Valley, Wyoming, Mankato, Macon, and New Britain Symphonies, and served on the faculty of the University of Connecticut and Connecticut College.
Through Valdosta Symphony’s Youth Concert Series, he has introduced live classical music to thousands of children. Hsu has also worked with Music Educators Association All State Orchestras in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and Georgia Governor’s Honors Program Orchestra and String Ensemble.
Hsu received his D.M.A. from the University of Connecticut, his M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and his B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.