Our Music Director
Aaron Burgess,
ICO Music Director
Aaron S. Burgess is a dynamic conductor and music educator with close ties to the collegiate, public school and community music arenas. He has been lauded for his exuberant and evocative performances and his collaborative apporach to ensemble music making and administration.
Aaron is assistant professor of music education at Ithaca College, where he teaches courses in instrumental music education and supervises student teachers. In addition to serving as music director of the Ithaca Community Orchestra, he is resident conductor of the Ithaca New Music Collective.
Aaron has collaborated from the podium with many artists and composers. He has also commissioned and premiered many new works for winds, strings and percussion, guest conducted a wide array of ensembles and honor bands, and presented on topics related to conducting and instrumental music education.
His work includes appointments as conductor and advisor of the acclaimed Ithaca College Trombone Troup, music director of the Auburn Chamber Orchestra, conductor and faculty member of the Ithaca College Summer Music Academy and director of bands in the Southern Cayuga Central Schools (NY), junior high band director in the Trumansburg Central School District (NY) and conductor of the Ithaca College Symphonic Band.
Aaron holds a Master of Music in wind conducting from Ithaca College and Bachelor's degrees in music and education from the University of Connecticut.
Miguel Guillén-Merino
Assistant Conductor
Miguel Guillén-Merino is an emerging conductor and violinst from Guanajuato, Mexico. In the fall of 2026, he enrolled in the Master of Music in Orchestra Conducting program at Ithaca College.
Miguel serves as a graduate assistant under the guidance of Maestro Ho-Yin Kwok, an Ithaca College faculty member who is a first-place winner of The American Prize in opera conducting. Miguel is also the assistant conductor of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra under Maestro Guillaume Pirard.
In addition to his work as a conductor, Miguel is an active violin instructor who teaches students of all levels. He received a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance at the University of North Texas College of Music, where he studied with the Russian violinist Julia Bushkova.
While at the University of North Texas, Miguel was a member of the Kintsugi Quartet and performed with the ensemble across North Texas. He has taken masterclasses from distinguished musicians, including Simón Gollo, Horacio Contreras, Chloé Kiffer, Susan Dubois, Paul Huang, the Miró Quartet, the Merz Trio, and Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet.
Miguel also studied conducting at the Conducting Institute in Fort Worth under Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Andrew Kim, and served as a teaching assistant for the Summer 2025 season.