Our Faculty

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Artistic Director Louis A. Kosma has been conducting with the Youth Orchestras of Essex County since 1993. A graduate of Temple University, Mr. Kosma is most well-known as a double-bassist who performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1978-2014. He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Mostly Mozart Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Chautauqua Symphony, and has served as  principal bassist or acting principal bassist with the American Ballet Theater orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. 

As a conductor and educator, Mr. Kosma has taught music at Holy Family Academy (Bayonne) and in Belleville Public Schools, and is formerly the Artistic Director of Stokes Forest Music Camp (Montclair State University). He has conducted the NJSMA and NJMEA regional and all-state orchestras on several occasions. He has served on the faculties of Columbia University, SUNY Purchase, Kean University, Temple University, and the Jenkintown Music School. He is formerly the director of the orchestra at New Jersey City University and currently the Musical Director and Principal Conductor of Vermont Philharmonic. Mr. Kosma is the 2014 recipient of the NJMEA’s Distinguished Leadership and Service Award.

Karen Conrad holds a B. A. in Music Education from Montclair State University and an M.M. in Cello Performance from the New England Conservatory. As a freelance cellist, Mrs. Conrad has performed with the New Jersey State Opera orchestra, and with artists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Ravi Shankar, Henry Mancini, The Three Irish Tenors, Michael Feinstein, Blues Traveler, and was principal cellist of the Paper Mill Playhouse theater orchestra for eight years.

As an educator, she has served New Jersey’s music students as a string specialist and conductor for 42 years, most of which she spent as the Orchestra Director at Millburn High School. She has also conducted the Youth Orchestra at the  Montclair State University Preparatory Division, she has served as the chair and the coordinator of the North Jersey Region 1 Orchestra, and has conducted the Region 1 Orchestra. She was a member of the New Jersey Symphony Master Teachers’ Collaborative, and has been named to Who’s Who in Education, American Women, and America.

Award-winning violinist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer David has worked with students from pre-k to post-retirement. He has taught at public and private schools, outreach programs, music festivals, and at the university level. He has taught strings and been an orchestra director with West Orange Public Schools, The Redoaks School in Morristown, and The Concordia Orchestra in New York City.  He is currently the director of the jazz band at New Jersey Institute of Technology and gives his time to various local community music programs. 

Mr. Rimelis frequently performs family concerts with symphony orchestras. He has written various orchestral and chamber pieces with multigenerational themes, and he narrates these performances.