Meet the Artistic Director

Aaron Kaplan enjoys a multifaceted musical career as a conductor, Jeff-Award nominated musical director, cellist, music educator, and arranger. Aaron is the artistic director/conductor of the JAM Orchestra, a Chicago-based ensemble dedicated to performing a diverse repertoire of classical, Broadway, swing, and film music. He also conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra for the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras and conducts the orchestra and cello choir for the Chicago Suzuki Institute. In recent seasons, Aaron has guest conducted the Arete Orchestra, North Shore Chamber Orchestra, University of Illinois at Chicago Orchestra and led the Peoria Ballet’s performances of The Nutcracker with the Heartland Festival Orchestra. A dedicated teacher, Aaron is an orchestra director at Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South High Schools where he co-teaches the orchestra classes, conducts the Glenbrook Symphony Orchestra, teaches AP Music Theory, writes orchestrations for both schools’ annual variety shows, and conducts the annual Glenbrook musical.

A passionate advocate of the American musical theatre, Aaron has been the music director/conductor for over 100 productions (the majority with original orchestration) including West Side Story, On the Town, Les Misérables, RENT, Chess, Guys & Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Producers. His work has been nominated for Best Music Direction 5 times by the Joseph Jefferson Awards, and he has worked at numerous theatre companies including Theo Ubique, Blank Theatre Company, Citadel Theatre, Metropolis Performing Arts Centre. He was invited to conduct the orchestra for the Illinois High School Theatre Festival All-State Production twice; in 2013 for Memphis (premiere amateur production) and in 2017 for Sweeney Todd.

He has continued his conducting studies at workshops and festivals throughout the United States and Europe with Gustav Meier and Larry Rachleff and has conducted the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic) and the New Symphony of Bulgaria. Aaron began studying cello at the age of 5 with Holly Compton, and continued with Blake Brasch, Ani Aznavoorian, and Brandon Vamos of the Pacifica Quartet. He earned a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the tutelage of Donald Schleicher, as well as his bachelor’s degree in cello performance and bachelor’s degree in music education with high honors also from the University of Illinois.