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Philip Mann, Assistant Conductor & Conducting Fellow of the San Diego Symphony, is a member of the American Conducting Fellows Program, a national conductor training program developed and managed by the American Symphony Orchestra League. The program supports the musical and leadership development of exceptionally talented conductors in the early stages of their professional careers. It aims to improve the qualifications of American conductors to assume leadership roles as music directors of American orchestras. Funding for the American Conducting Fellows Program is provided by a major grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Hailed by the BBC as a “talent to watch out for, who conveys a mature command of his forces,” American conductor Philip Mann is quickly gaining a reputation as a dynamic artist with a magnetism felt by orchestras and audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. He recently made his New York debut to a sold-out Avery Fischer Hall and was in residence at the Salzburg Festival as the Vienna Philharmonic’s Karajan Fellow.  Currently, Mann is an American Symphony Orchestra League “American Conducting Fellow” with the San Diego Symphony, having previously served as the Schmidt Conducting Fellow of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  Elected a Rhodes Scholar, he resided in England, taught at Oxford, and won the annual competition to become principal conductor of the Oxford University Philharmonia at home and on tour where the Swedish press described his Brahms 4 as “perfectly skillful…joyful… overwhelming.” Active in both symphonic and operatic repertory, he has also served as music director of the Oxford City Opera, Oxford Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra/Oxford Pops, principal guest conductor of the Arizona Camerata, and assistant conductor of the famed Indiana University Opera Theater.  As an assistant conductor, he has worked under Leonard Slatkin, Roberto Abbado, Michael Stern, Mario Venzago, Jaime Laredo and Jahja Ling.

Mann studied under the renowned Bolshoi Theater’s Music Director Alexander Vedernikov at the Moscow State Conservatory and with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Robert Ward at the Conductor’s Institute at Spoleto.  He also worked with Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center’s National Conducting Institute and Michael Tilson Thomas at the New World Symphony. While in England, he studied with Alan Hazeldine of London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Colin Metters at the Royal Academy of Music, and Marios Papadopoulos of the Oxford Philomusica. He has also worked under Imre Pallo, David Effron, John Poole, and Thomas Baldner at Indiana University where he was appointed visiting lecturer in orchestral conducting. Additionally, he has worked with Kurt Masur at his Manhattan master classes, numerous conductors at Colorado’s Music in the Mountains as a faculty member, and as assistant conductor of the Hot Springs Music Festival in Arkansas. 

Trained as a violinist, Mann has appeared as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber player in the US and abroad. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a commendation from the Lieutenant Governor of California and a service award from the mayor of the city of Chandler Arizona. During his undergraduate studies at Arizona State University’s Herberger College of Fine Arts he earned distinctions including: Outstanding Graduate, Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Music Education, author of a Barrett Thesis of Distinction, and the honor of presenting the 2001 Convocation Address.

In the two years Mann will be with the San Diego Symphony, he will also assist Maestro Ling in rehearsals and work closely with our Education department in crafting new and innovative programming for young audiences.