Celebrating 28 years with Sound Symphony, Maestro Savitch is honored with the title of Conductor Laureate on June 29, 2025

Dorothy Savitch has been music director of the Sound Symphony since 1997 and music director of the Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra since 2003.  Since her tenure began, both orchestras have grown and expanded into two of the finest community ensembles in the New York metropolitan area.  They have received high praise for their vibrant performances and expansive repertoire.

In 1990, Maestro Savitch founded the Gotham Chamber Orchestra.  From 1990-1998 the GCO established itself as one of New York City’s outstanding professional chamber orchestras.  During these years Maestro Savitch gained her reputation as a champion of American composers, performing numerous premiers and revivals of American works.  The Brooklyn Free Press hailed the GCO performances as “a tour de force”.  Maestro Savitch also serves on the faculty of the Summer Conductors Workshop at Queens College.

Before her transition to the podium, Maestro Savitch studied the classical guitar with Christopher Parkening and Vicente Gomez, and toured throughout the West Coast.  She received music degrees from Columbia University and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.  Her conducting teachers include Harold Farberman and Maurice Peress.  Maestro Savitch is also the director of the Brooklyn Conservatory’s Music Partner’s Program, which provides hands-on musical training to nearly 5,000 New York City schoolchildren.

She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, composer Howard Lew. June 15, 2025 was Maestro Savitch’s final concert as the Music Director of Sound Symphony. After 28 dedicated years, Sound Symphony performed Gershwin’s Cuban Overture, Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Concerto Competition Winner Allen Vee, Shaw’s Entr’acte for Strings, and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite under Dorothy’s baton in a heartfelt final performance.