Conductor and violist Jacob Sustaita has just completed his second master’s degree at The Pennsylvania State University as a Graduate Conducting Student Assistant working under the tutelage of Gerardo Edelstein. Recently, Jacob served as music director for the Penn State Opera Theatre’s 2010 production of Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea. This year Jacob was a finalist for the Conducting Fellowship at Tangelwood, and most recently he was invited to conduct this summer at the Royal College in London and the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra in St. Petersburg.
Jacob Sustaita’s music recognition began in the late 1990s when his string quartet was selected to perform on National Public Radio’s “From the Top” with Christopher O’Rilley at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. His studies took him to Houston where he studied viola with Rita Porfiris and Wayne Brooks of the Houston Symphony before working and studying as a Viola Fellow with James Dunham at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
While in Houston, Jacob served as Music Director and Conductor of the Southeast Texas Youth Symphony from 2006-2009, and in 2008 and 2010 he served as guest Music Director of the Rothko Chapel’s production of Beverly Rigsby’s opera, Fragments of St. Augustine. Also he has served as principal guest conductor at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts from 2007-2009, and he served as assistant conductor for PROJECT DIVISI, a Houston based string orchestra, for the 2008-2009 season.
