Recent engagements include acting as cover conductor for St.Louis Symphony, National Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra. This summer, she was at the Napa Valley Festival acting as a Joel Revzen fellow where she led the orchestra in two concert cycles and was a part of the production of L'elisir d'amore working closely with Gemma New.   Former posts include serving as Interim Director of Orchestras at Cornell University, Assistant Conductor for the Phoenix Youth Symphony Orchestra and cover conductor and assistant for The Phoenix Symphony and Arizona Musicfest. In addition to her fellowships, Di Russo was the recipient of a 2020 American Austrian Foundation/Faber Young Conductors Fellowship, a Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Conducting Scholarship at the Cabrillo Music Festival of Contemporary Music, and has served as a conducting fellow at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Italy.   During the pandemic Di Russo co-created Girls Who Conduct, an organization dedicated to bridge the gap between women and men in the conducting field and encourage younger generations of women and non-binary conductors to overcome any obstacles presented due to their gender.     Past performance highlights include serving as Assistant Conductor for Prague Summer Nights Festival in productions of Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte in the Czech Republic; leading the state premiere of Annika Socolofsky’s Gaze at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music; leading the premiere of Carlos Simon’s This Land at Arizona’s Gammage Memorial Auditorium’s “Beyond the Concert Series;” and serving as cover conductor for Grant Llewellyn with North Carolina Symphony. Di Russo has guest conducted the United States Pershing’s Own Army Band, the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra, the Teatro Colón’s Orquesta Académica and the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina Orchestra.   Michelle Di Russo’s artistic journey began at the age of three in ballet and continued with studies in voice and piano. She has participated as dancer/actress in Argentinian Disney TV shows such as Violetta and Rincon de Luz. Prior to switching her focus to the podium, she was a cast member of a professional musical theatre production "Drácula" by Cibrian-Mahler while an undergraduate, gaining insight into the ways of a working theatre. This passion for theatre has endured in her work conducting Opera and Musical Theatre.    A native of Argentina with Italian roots, Di Russo holds a Doctoral Degree in Orchestral Conducting from Arizona State University and a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Kentucky. She completed her degree in Orchestral Conducting and Music Production of Audiovisual Media from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, where she was awarded an Ad-Hoc Diploma for the highest grade in Orchestral Conducting.   She has participated in masterclasses with conductors Cristian Măcelaru, Emmanuel Villaume, Marin Alsop, Carlo Montanaro, and Guillermo Scarabino. Mentors include Mei-Ann Chen, Tito Muñoz, Jeffery Meyer and Carlos Vieu.