Susskind, Peter

Although now a resident of San Francisco, Peter Susskind is a native Briton educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at the Royal College of Music in London. Until recently he was the Executive Director of  San Francisco’s Pocket Opera. He is the Artistic Advisor for Noontime concerts at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral.  He has conducted many British groups including the English Chamber Orchestra at London's Royal Festival Hall and The London Mozart Players. He was Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1986 and also Music Director and Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. He has also conducted subscription concerts with the San José, Youngstown, Marin and San Francisco Chamber Symphonies. He has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra's Sommerfest, the Honolulu Symphony and the Conservatory Orchestras in both Saint Louis and San Francisco. Abroad he has conducted the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philarmonic in Korea and at the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. In 1995 he conducted the U.C. Berkeley Symphony for a semester and also led the San Francisco Symphony in children’s concerts. A regular speaker with the SF Opera, for many years, he has also given many pre-concert talks for various Bay Area Music organizations, including the San Francisco Symphony, Cantabile Chorale and Stanford’s Lively Arts series.

He was the music director and conductor of the South Bay Youth Orchestra, and subsequently was Executive Director of the Midsummer Mozart Festival.