Dr. Chris Wild is proud to serve the excellent music students of Indiana’s Wabash River Valley as Artistic Director of the Wabash Valley Youth Symphony. Before moving to Indianapolis with his wife, Chris worked in Chicago and southwest Michigan, spending four years as Orchestra Director of the Andrews University Symphony Orchestra. While in Michiana, he also taught cellists at the University of Notre Dame and was cellist of the Euclid Quartet. Many years prior, his musical studies began as a cellist in Vancouver, Canada. After putting in many practice hours, his earliest musical accomplishments include placing first in the strings category of the Canadian Music Competition and performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. A dual citizen, he moved stateside to attend the University of Michigan, where he studied cello with Erling Blöndal Bengtsson and Richard Aaron and won first place in the school’s Concerto Competition. While at Michigan, he also developed interests in conducting and music education, recognizing their potential for engaging with new listeners, and stayed to complete a MM in music education. Upon graduation, Chris moved to Chicago where he worked in parallel as Orchestra Director for the DeKalb school district and as cellist for Ensemble Dal Niente, a group described by the New York Times as a “superb contemporary-music collective.” Growing since its inception in 2006, Chris has performed with Dal Niente on eight albums and toured across North and South America and Europe. Over the past decade, he has also conducted a variety of orchestras, including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Peninsula Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra & Chorus, South Bend Symphony Orchestra and Windsor Symphony Orchestra. Eventually, he returned to school and completed a DMA in Orchestral Conducting at Northwestern University, studying with Victor Yampolsky. Chris especially enjoys working with student orchestras, which is both the most challenging and the most rewarding!