Martin Kessler is beginning his twenty-fifth year as Music Director and Conductor of the Suburban Symphony. During his tenure, the orchestra has grown in size and stature while maintaining the best musical traditions of his predecessor, Robert Weiskopf. The orchestra's repertoire has been expanded to include works of Bartok, Hindemith,Ravel, and Stravinsky as well as those of Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Brahms.

Born in Cleveland in 1949, Mr. Kessler received his early musical education in piano, voice, theory and composition from the Cleveland Music School Settlement. He also attended Cleveland Heights High School where he served as Student Conductor of the Heights Choir. From there he was accepted as a conducting student at the Meadowbrook School of Music, where his teachers included Robert Shaw, Clayton Krehbeil and James Levine.

Mr. Kessler is a graduate of Harvard University, where he served as Music Director of the Bach Society Orchestra and for Leverett House Opera. He holds a Masters Degree in composition from Cleveland State University - a degree earned while serving as a conductor of the orchestra and interim conductor of the choral program. He also holds diplomas in conducting from the Salzburg Mozarteum and London's Trinity College of Music.

Besides his work with Suburban Symphony, Martin Kessler serves as Director of Music at University School's Hunting Valley Campus and is Music Director of the Choral Arts Society of Cleveland. Also, he has conducted eight productions for Lyric Opera Cleveland and three for Cain Park. He is active as a composer and essayist, and enjoys his hobbies of cooking, sailing and tennis. He lives in Cleveland Heights with his wife Joyce.