Jonathan Allentoff

A native of Rochester, Jonathan Allentoff is an accomplished conductor, composer, performer, clinician, and educator. In addition to teaching at the Eastman Community Music School, he serves as the music director of the Brockport Symphony, Greece Community, and Temple Beth El Orchestras, associate conductor, principal viola, and principal arranger of the Brighton Symphony Orchestra, President of the Greece Performing Arts Society (GPAS), strings instructor at Hillel School, composition mentor and conductor for the Los Angeles Inception Orchestra, and the founder of Allentoff Music (ASCAP).

Actively involved in the composition and performance of Klezmer and Hebraic liturgical music, he enjoys directing the music for Temple Beth El’s services and concerts, including the community-wide “Music of the Soul” Selichot Service that he created in collaboration with Rabbi Leonardo Bitran and Hazzan Martin Leubitz. He recently composed the score for New York’s Metropolitan Playhouse documented drama, Love Letters from the Cold War, conducted his arrangements at the ASMAC Summer Concert celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Warner Bros. at Evergreen Studios in Burbank, CA, and conducted and performed as violin soloist with the Flight 584 Big Band in North Hollywood, CA. He has been invited to present workshops and lectures and perform on violin and viola at the Association for Popular Music Education Conferences at Loyola University in New Orleans, the Detroit Institute of Music Education, Columbia College Chicago, New York University, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Colorado Denver, and the Berklee College of Music. He serves as a conducting clinician and principal viola for the NYSSMA/NYASTA Directors’ Orchestra at the NYSSMA Summer Conference in Albany, NY, and he has appeared as violin and viola soloist with the NYACDA Honor Choirs. His works and licensed arrangements have been performed by ensembles across the globe, including the Pittsburgh, Knoxville, Muncie, Oklahoma, Salina, and Vermont Symphony Orchestras and the Sydney Opera House.

He holds a Master of Arts degree specializing in Music, Interdisciplinary Arts, Education, and Technology from Stony Brook University, and he received the Dr. Deborah C. Hecht Award for his MA thesis, “The Positive Cultural Impact of Community Orchestras.” His capstone project, based on score research at the University of California, Los Angeles and Syracuse University, was entitled, “The Music and Artistic Contributions of Miklós Rózsa.” He holds a Bachelor of Science, Summa Cum Laude, in Interdisciplinary Arts and Music from SUNY Brockport. He is an active member and clinician for APME, ASCAP, ASMAC, ASTA, CODA, NAfME, and NYSSMA, and he serves on the Executive Board of NYASTA, ASMAC’s Event Planning Committee, and the Los Angeles Inception Orchestra Board of Directors.