Ken Selden

Ken Selden is the newest member of the artistic leadership team at Portland Youth Philharmonic and will serve as Interim Conductor of the Portland Youth Conservatory Orchestra, following the retirement of longtime PYP conductor Larry Johnson at the conclusion of Season 101. We are pleased to welcome Ken into this role and look forward to the artistry, leadership, and energy he brings during this important period of transition.

Ken Selden is Director of Orchestral Studies at Portland State University, a position he has held since 2006. He is also currently the conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Youth Virtuosi and orchestra director for Portland Choir & Orchestra. As artistic director of the Martingale Ensemble, he has recorded two Mahler albums for MSR Classics, and most recently, a Piazzolla album for the Naxos label, featuring violinist Tomás Cotik.

In the Portland area, he has appeared as guest conductor for the Eugene, Newport, Oregon, Portland Festival, and Vancouver Symphonies, as well as Portland Chamber Orchestra, Salem Chamber Orchestra, Third Angle, Fear No Music, and Oregon Origins Project.

Prior to his appointment at PSU, he lived in New York, where he was Assistant Conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Eos Orchestra, while working with young musicians at New Jersey Youth Symphony, Juilliard School Pre-College, Brooklyn College, and Columbia University. He has conducted orchestras throughout the United States and in Europe.

Selden is a graduate of New England Conservatory, Indiana University, and Peabody Conservatory. His teachers include violinists James Buswell and Yuval Yaron, and conductors Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar. He attended the Kennedy Center National Conducting Institute, where he studied with Leonard Slatkin, and the National Arts Center Young Artists Program in Canada, where he studied with Pinchas Zuckerman and Jorma Panula.