ELIAS GILBERT

Elias Gilbert is a clarinetist, conductor, and composer from Santa Cruz, California, currently based in Baltimore, Maryland. Influenced by a broad range of experiences in orchestral playing and conducting, chamber music, big band jazz, marching band, and musical theater, Elias is committed to expanding the horizons of orchestral and instrumental music.

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Elias is currently Music Director of the Johns Hopkins Medical Orchestra, an orchestra of doctors, medical students, researchers, and community members in East Baltimore Maryland. His inaugural concert with the orchestra on December 12, 2025 will feature Dvořák's Symphony no. 9 "From the New World". Elias served as Principal Conductor of the Davenport Pops Orchestra from 2022 to 2024. During this time, he performed a wide variety of student arrangements and light classical repertoire, including John Williams’ Harry Potter and Star Wars scores, Danzón no. 2 by Arturo Marquez, Charles Ives’ Yale-Princeton Football Game, and the instant classic Taylor Swift: The Eras Medley. He also served as Assistant Conductor of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, studying with Maestro William Boughton. With the YSO, he conducted the iconic annual midnight Halloween Show in sold-out Woolsey Hall, readings of new works by student composers, and other repertoire such as Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments. He also led outreach performances on the YSO’s 2023 Mexico Tour, including chamber and orchestral concerts in Spanish for local children and translating promotional materials. As Music Director of the Yale Undergraduate Chamber Orchestra, Elias conducted Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Ravel’s Ma Mere l’Oye and collaborated with student soloists and composers. 

 

As a soloist, Elias performed Bruch’s Double Concerto for Clarinet and Viola with the Berkeley College Orchestra in 2023 as well as Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony in 2019. His recent recital performances have featured an eclectic mix of repertoire, including Shulamit Ran’s For An Actor, Clara Schumann's Drei Romanzen, Adolphus Hailstork’s Three Smiles for Tracey, Mozart’s Clarinet and Kegelstatt Trio, Johanna Magdalena Beyer's Suite I for Clarinet, and Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes. He also periodically joins the "Jazz on High" band at Peace United Church of Christ in Santa Cruz, CA for special services. 

 

An avid orchestral player, Elias has played principal clarinet in the Yale Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Conductors’ Orchestra, and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival Orchestra. He also plays frequently in musical theater pit orchestras, doubling on flute and piccolo, soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones, clarinet and bass clarinet, and even accordion with companies including Cabrillo Stage (In the Heights), The Western Stage (Young Frankenstein, Evita), the Yale Dramatic Association (Cabaret, A Chorus Line, The Addams Family), and others (A New Brain, Peter Pan, Indecent, Falstaff). 

 

Elias is also an active composer, arranger, and supporter of contemporary music. In past summers, Elias’ works were premiered at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music: his Quartet for Four Violins (2021) and "Meditation" for Clarinet, Violin, and Singing Bowl (2022). His compositions often explore computational and aleatoric elements, stemming in part from his prior training as a mathematician. His arranging credits for the Davenport Pops Orchestra range from Lil Nas X’s "Industry Baby" to Howard Shore’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Elias also contributed orchestrations for the original musical Word Nerd by Charlie Romano (2018). His chamber group, the Nuovi Venti Saxophone Quartet, released their eponymous album in 2020, which featured a wide range of repertoire including Bach, jazz standards, and contemporary works, including Elias’ arrangements and his cheeky scherzo movement "Da-ba-da-dat" (2019).

 

Elias is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Clarinet Performance at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, studying clarinet with Alexander Fiterstein and conducting with Dr. Harlan Parker. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics from Yale University in 2024.