About

The Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra’s membership reflects the diversity of the Yale medical center, including faculty, trainees, students, and staff from the School of Medicine Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Biostatistics, Cell Biology, Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Chemistry, Emergency Medicine, Environmental Engineering, Genetics, History of Medicine, Immunobiology, Internal Medicine, Microbiology, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Neurobiology, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Pharmacology, Pathology, Plastic Surgery, and Surgery, the Child Study Center, staff and volunteers at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and students of the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Epidemiology and Public Health.

Steven Huang, MM has conducted orchestras and operas across the United States and throughout the world, including recurring guest conductor of the Ohio Valley Symphony, National Philharmonic of Moldova, and l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Ste. Trinité, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At the age of twenty-one, he served as Music Director of the Bach Society Orchestra of Harvard University, where he received his undergraduate degree, as well as the Lowell House Opera, the oldest continuously running opera company in New England. From 2004-2020, he served on faculty as Director of Orchestral Activities at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He is currently the Music Director of the New Westchester Symphony Orchestra, Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra, and the Norwalk Youth Symphony Concert Orchestra. He also is a certified educator and he has taught at Kent Center School in Connecticut.

Since 2000, Steven has visited Haiti numerous times to work with musicians as a conductor, pianist, cellist, and teacher. As faculty at L'Ecole de Musique Ste. Trinité, he has attended summer music camps in Leogâne, Port-au-Prince, Petionville, and Cange in addition to guest conducting regular season concerts. He has also participated as faculty with L’Ecole de Musique Dessaix-Baptiste in Jacmel. As a faculty member at Ohio University, he has supported sabbatical education in the United States for several Haitian musicians.

Steven’s conducting experience is worldwide. He has held the position of Music Director of the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Fortismere Symphony of London, the Central Illinois Youth Symphony, the Gilbert and Sullivan Players of Chicago, and the Bradley University Orchestra. He has guest conducted programs with the Boston Pops, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Brasov Philharmonic, the New Symphony Orchestra of Bulgaria; the Attergau Kultursommer Orchestra in Austria in conjunction with the Salzburg Festival; the Jeunesses Musicales Festival Orchestra, and Pitesti Philharmonic in Romania, and the “Regina Vioara” International Violin Festival Orchestra in Moldova.

Mr. Huang earned the Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan as a student of Kenneth Kiesler. He twice received the Herbert von Karajan Fellowship for Young Conductors for study at the Salzburg Festival, and was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship for study at the National University of Music in Bucharest, where he was the student of Dumitru Goia. Mr. Huang serves on the boards of the Ohio Valley Symphony and BLUME Haiti.

Florian Vining is a native of Chicago, IL, where he first began to study trumpet. In the spring of 2023, he graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science in Music Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Music. He has studied trumpet with Longino Villarreal and Dr. Louis Hanzlik. In the spring of 2024, he graduated from the NEAG School of Education at the University of Connecticut with a Master's of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction for Music Education.

Since moving to Connecticut in the spring of 2023, Florian Vining has been active throughout the state. In addition to being the assistant conductor of the Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra since the summer of 2022, he has also worked with the Civic Orchestra of New Haven. In the spring of 2023, Florian Vining was appointed music director and conductor of the University of Connecticut Chamber Orchestra, a student-led organization that gives students opportunities to showcase their talents and continue their musical experiences beyond high school, regardless of their playing abilities.

Mr. Vining has studied with multiple conductors throughout his collegiate career, including André Raphel, Ricardo Brown, Robert Smith III, and Steven Huang.