CCM Philharmonia opens season with Russian masterworks on Sept. 15

With the 2025-26 season, Timothy Muffitt concluded a 20-year tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. From 1999 to 2019, he was also Music Director of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. Upon his resignation there he was honored with the title Music Director Laureate. Muffitt is also Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Institution Music School and conductor of the Music School Festival Orchestra, one of the country's premiere orchestral training ensembles. He has held this position since 1997. Along with continued growth in artistic excellence, Muffitt's work has been marked by innovative and imaginative programming. In addition to traditional concert settings, he has crafted concert programs in new and engaging formats and venues, creating musical experiences that have expanded the audience base in his communities and garnered enthusiastic response.
 
Also notable throughout his career has been the championing of new music from composers of broad backgrounds including composers from traditionally under-represented communities along with well-established living composers and those whose stars are still rising. He has been involved in commissioning well over 100 works in his career and initiated a Composer-in-Residence program with The Lansing Symphony. These efforts reflect his commitment to creating a nurturing environment for music of our time, all while striking a balance with traditional repertoire that creates a dynamic and enlightening experience for the audiences.
 
In great demand as a guest conductor, Mr. Muffitt has appeared with many prominent orchestras in North America including the Atlanta, St. Louis, Houston, Phoenix, Edmonton, Spokane and Tulsa Symphonies, along with several return engagements with the San Francisco Symphony. Other engagements have taken Muffitt to podiums of the Hollywood Bowl, Columbus Ohio's Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, the Long Beach Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Harrisburg Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, and the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra in Chicago. Equally at home in the opera pit as the concert stage, Mr. Muffitt has also conducted over 50 staged opera productions.
 
He has had the pleasure of collaborating with a wide range of artists including Lang Lang, Yo Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Emanuel Ax, Renee Fleming,  Hilary Hahn, William Warfield, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Van Cliburn, Itzhak Perlman, Andre Watts, Joshua Bell, Pinchas Zuckerman, Audra McDonald, Chris Botti, Branford Marsalis, Roberta Flack, Kenny Loggins, and Trisha Yearwood among many others.

Off the podium, Muffitt​ has engaged his communities as an arts advocate and cultural leader through multiple platforms. A strong proponent of community-based arts education and enrichment, he has used television, radio, public lecture and social media to engage, entertain and enlighten audiences.

Formerly Associate Conductor with the Austin Symphony, Mr. Muffitt was also Artistic Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic's Casual Classics Series in New Orleans. It was for his work in that position, that he was awarded a Certificate of Meritorious Service from the American Federation of Musicians.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mr. Muffitt began his musical studies on the piano and later added viola and trumpet. His conducting teachers were David Effron, Timothy Russell, Murry Sidlin and Walter Hendl. He is a graduate of Ohio State University and the Eastman School of Music where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

Learn more on his professional website.

Ding Zhou is a Chinese pianist who is trained on two instruments — piano and dizi. Admitted to the School of Arts at Sun Yat-sen University as a major on the dizi, the traditional Chinese bamboo flute, he continued his piano studies privately alongside his degree, working with Professor Siyuan Li for four years. Training in both instruments left him with an ear shaped by two traditions, and that dual grounding continues to inform his playing.

Zhou is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studies with Professor Avan Yu. He holds a Master of Music from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with Professor Chi Ho Han.

His curiosity extends past the keyboard to the technology musicians work with. He is active in recording technology and develops apps for musicians, among them the metronome SimpleTick.