Maestro
Zeljko (Bill) Milicevic
A sought-after conductor, violinist, educator, clinician and adjudicator, Milicevic began his service in public education in 1990 and has taught music to students at all grade levels. He has led orchestra programs in Royal Oak Neighborhood Schools, Utica Community Schools, and Farmington Public Schools and most recently has served as Director of Orchestras and District String Coordinator, grades K-12 with the Oxford Community Schools. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of String Pedagogy at Oakland University in Rochester, MI.
Music Director and Conductor of the Detroit Medical Orchestra, Zeljko Milicevic graduated from Wayne State University with a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and Violin Performance and completed his Master of Music in Education from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He also earned a Certificate in Orchestral Studies from Wayne State University with an emphasis in Conducting and Violin Performance.
A member of the Flint Symphony Orchestra since 1987, Milicevic was appointed to the position of Associate Concertmaster in 2011. His role as Concertmaster of the Bijou Orchestra, a select 13-member salon theatre orchestra located in Bay City, MI, has afforded him numerous memorable performances in the mid-Michigan area including the revival of silent movies set to live music, performing as soloist, and presenting period reviews in concert specializing in music from the 1920s, 30s and 40s. He has also performed with many of Michigan’s regional orchestras including the Michigan Opera Theatre, Saginaw-Bay Orchestra and The Midland Symphony Orchestra.
DMO Maestro Bill Milicevic with Rochester Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Lori Gunn (2016)
An avid chamber musician, his career includes engagements with numerous ensembles. He performs with the Ivybrooke Strings where he engages in a variety of chamber music settings including trios and quartets and specializing in violin and piano duo. The duo enjoys performing recitals and performing for community groups around Metro Detroit. Milicevic is also a violinist with the Classic Impressions String Quartet comprised of principals of the Flint Symphony Orchestra. His most recent recording projects include a musical portrayal based on the book Einstein’s Dreams with the Bijou Orchestra, and the piano trios of Mendelssohn and Haydn recorded with the Ivybrooke Strings. As an outreach of the Flint Symphony Orchestra, he is a violinist with the Troubadours ensemble.
Milicevic has previously held directorship posts with the Lake St. Clair Symphony Orchestra and Symphony of the Lakes. Presently, he serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Rochester Symphony Orchestra and is on staff as Senior Director with the Oakland Youth Orchestras where he conducts the Symphony Orchestra. He looks forward to sharing the healing gift of music with everyone, as Maestro of the Detroit Medical Orchestra.
Previous Conductors of the Detroit Medical Orchestra
Joel Schut
Fascinated by music’s ability to connect people, places, ideas and communities, Joel Schut is active as a conductor, educator and violinist. Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, he began his training on piano and quickly developed a passion for making music. Joel served as the inaugural music director of the Detroit Medical Orchestra from 2009-2010 in collaboration with founder and friend Dr. Michelle Ubels. Joel earned a Bachelors of Music in Violin Performance and Music Education from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance where he was awarded the Albert A. Stanley Medal, the school’s highest honor. He also holds a Masters of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Colorado-Boulder studying with Gary Lewis. As a conductor, Joel has served as Music Director of the Livingston Symphony Orchestra from 2007-2010 as well as founding director of the Detroit Medical Orchestra. As a graduate assistant for the University of Colorado Orchestras, he assisted with the CU Symphony, Chamber, and Campus Orchestras. Additionally, he is active as a guest conductor and clinician with groups at multiple levels of community. As a violinist, Joel is a former member of the Flint Symphony Orchestra and a semi-finalist for the New World Symphony. He has performed with the Aspen Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the American Institute of Musical Studies Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria. Additionally, he toured Mexico and China as a member of the YOA Orchestra of the Americas, and has performed in Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra Seminar and the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra. A passionate advocate for music education, Joel served as Orchestra Director at Saline High School in Michigan teaching a vibrant string program of over 160 students. He has worked as a mentor with the Detroit Civic Orchestra and the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestra and has conducted orchestras for Boulder Suzuki Strings. As an advocate for cultural diplomacy through music, Joel served as an American Music Ambassador on a 2010 Cultures in Harmony project in Tunisia as well as conductor and violin faculty for the 2012 inaugural Campamento Sinfónico Juvenil de Honduras. He looks forward to continuing to use music as a tool to discover the intersection of arts, education, and cultural diplomacy.
Elliott Moore
Music Director of the Detroit Medical Orchestra from May 2001 through May 2017, ELLIOT MOORE is one of the most exciting and multi-faceted American conductors of his generation. In July 2017 he was appointed as the Music Director of the Longmont Symphony in Longmont Colorado. Elliot Moore made his Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall debut on March 3, 2015, conducting his newly formed Blue Period Ensemble in a program that included Tibetan Dance and the New York City premiere of Deep Red for Marimba and Ensemble by MacArthur Award recipient Bright Sheng and the Arnold Schoenberg/Rainer Riehn transcription of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Highlights of Elliot Moore’s rapidly expanding career include rehearsals and/or performances with Mexico’s Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, Canadian Chamber Opera of New York City, Sewanee Symphony Orchestra and Canada’s National Arts Center Orchestra, as part of its Summer Music Institute Conductors Program. After completing his doctoral work at the University of Michigan, Mr. Moore was invited back to lead programs of the University Philharmonia Orchestra and the Contemporary Directions Ensemble. Equally at home on the concert stage and in the opera pit, Elliot Moore led the 2010 world premiere performance of Ursula Kwong-Brown’s The First of Love at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre. He has also led the University of Michigan Opera Theatre’s productions of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and Verdi’s Falstaff. Born in Alaska, Elliot Moore received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan, where he had been a recipient of the Helen Wu Graduate Conducting Fellowship. He began his conducting studies at the Conductors Retreat at Medomak with Kenneth Kiesler and was subsequently invited to be his assistant at the Manhattan School of Music, a position he held for two years. Off the podium, Elliot Moore has an interest in languages, is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner and is an award-winning cellist, who has performed in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil and the United States. He was conductor of the Campus Symphony and Campus Philharmonia Orchestras during his time at the University of Michigan. He continues as the Associate Conductor of the Canadian Chamber Orchestra of New York City and the Music Director of the New York City’s Blue Period Ensemble.
Warren Puffer Jones
Conductor Warren Puffer Jones is in his sixth year as Music Director/Conductor of Arbor Opera Theater and Music Director of the Ann Arbor Cantata Singers. Equally comfortable with the operatic, orchestral and choral repertoires, Jones has received acclaim as a rising talent in the new generation of conductors. In recent seasons he has led productions for the Comic Opera Guild and the University of Michigan Gilbert & Sullivan Society and conducted the Dexter Community Orchestra. He has also served as Assistant Conductor with the Plymouth Canton Symphony Society, the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra and Opera Illinois. His operatic repertoire includes La Traviata, La Bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Die Fledermaus, Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, and the Gilbert & Sullivan favorites The Pirates of Penzance and Iolanthe. A native of Oklahoma City, Mr. Jones did his undergraduate work at Yale University and received a Master's degree in choral conducting from Indiana University, with further study at the Conductor's Institute at Bard. He is currently working toward the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Michigan, where he studies with Kenneth Kiesler. He has directed concerts in twenty-two countries and throughout the U.S., including appearances at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and New York's Alice Tully Hall. He and his wife, soprano Kelly Holst, live in Ann Arbor.
We are a group of musicians from various professional backgrounds within the health field. Whether it's medical students, physicians, allied health professionals, professors, engineers, or just simply friends of the orchestra, we welcome all. Our main goal is to promote the healing power of music. If you've got the interest, we've got a seat for you!
Email comm@detroitmedicalorchestra.org to schedule an audition. We'd be happy to hear from you!