Glen Cortese  is in his fifth season as artistic director of the Oregon Mozart Players, his third season as artistic director of the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, and his twenty-first season as music director of the New York Chamber Sinfonia. He was also recently appointed Artistic Director of the Greeley (CO) Philharmonic.  Mr. Cortese was resident conductor of the Florida Philharmonic for the 2001-2002 season and completed twelve seasons at the Manhattan School of Music, where he was principal conductor and director of orchestral studies and led the school's debut performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and City Center as well as the MSM Orchestra's first performance on "Live from Lincoln Center." For eight years his work with the Manhattan School earned him the ASCAP New and Adventuresome Programming Award.

Mr. Cortese regularly appears as a guest conductor both in the United States and abroad. Last season he was guest conductor of the Sofia Philharmonic, the Lafayette Symphony, the Greeley Symphony, the Newport Symphony and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. Other recent guest engagements have included the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Sofia Festival Orchestra, the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra, the Billings Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Cleveland, the Annapolis Symphony, and the World Saxophone Conference Concerto Concerts.

As assistant conductor to the New York Philharmonic from 1990 to 1992, Mr. Cortese covered  for Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Charles Dutoit, and Erich Leinsdorf, among others. For seven years, starting in 1994, he was music director of the East-West International Symphony Orchestra in Altenburg, Germany, where he conducted over fifty concerts and two operas. His other opera credits include appearances with the Florida Grand Opera, New York City Opera, the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival Opera Theater, the Manhattan School Opera Theater, and the East West International Opera Theater.

Mr. Cortese's credits also include performances with the Connecticut Ballet, Joffrey II Ballet, the Elisa Monte Dance Company and the SUNY Purchase Dance Corps. He appeared regularly for five years as conductor for the Erick Hawkins Dance Company at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Joyce Theatre and on national tours. He has led large collaborative projects including chorus, orchestra and dance at Carnegie Hall and has performed in virtually every major performance venue in New York. His work in education is also extensive, including community outreach programs, educational concerts and children's videos on classical music.

Mr. Cortese has conducted concerti and solo works with such renowned artists as Ransom Wilson, Sharon Isbin, Ruth Laredo, Nathaniel Rosen, Glenn Dicterow, Silvia McNair, Mignon Dunn and Dawn Upshaw. A strong advocate of new music, he has conducted over 150 premieres and collaborated with composers Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, George Crumb, Richard Danielpour, Peter Maxwell Davies, Lukas Foss, Hans Werner Henze, and Ralph Shapey.

 Mr. Cortese is himself an accomplished composer and winner of numerous awards including the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a two time winner of the Joseph E. Bearns Prize, and a CAPS Grant from the New York Council on the Arts.  He is also the recipient of the Arthur Judson Foundation Award for a Young American Conductor.

Mr. Cortese's extensive discography includes recordings on the Titanic, Newport Classics, Phoenix, Owl, CMS and Le Crepuscule du Disc labels. His recent release of Mahler's Sixth Symphony received the honor of "Recording of the Month" in STEREOPHILE magazine.