Paul McShee joined the CSO as Music Director in 2019. Described by the Baltimore Sun as a conductor who draws “subtle nuances from any score,” Paul McShee, Assistant Professor and Artistic Director of Instrumental Studies at Binghamton University, is known for the “remarkable blend of warmth, energy, and driving rhythmic vitality” he evokes from any orchestra he conducts. Equally at home on the podium and in the opera pit, Dr. McShee is sought after as a conductor for opera productions in the US and Europe. He was guest music director of the Twin Cities Fringe Opera, staff conductor for the Baltimore Opera Project, guest conductor for La traviata and Madama Butterfly at Paul Hamlyn Hall in London, and music director of the PopUp Opera Program in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dr. McShee has conducted the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Paradisal Players, L’Orchestre QuiPasseParLà, L’Orchestre Band-Son, the Philharmonie Mihail Jora, and the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic. He holds the DMA in conducting from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and a MM from UConn.

His current research concerns the music of Brahms, Wagner, and Mahler, relating it to philosophy and cultural pessimism. His dissertation, “Gentle into that Good Night: Rejection of Linear Structural Narratives in Finales by Brahms, Wagner, and Mahler,” was recognized by Peabody Conservatory faculty with the 2018 Dissertation Prize. Dr. McShee studied under Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, Markand Thakar, Don Schleicher, Harvey Felder, and Larry Rachleff. His principal flute teachers were Emmanuel Pahud, Teresa Bowers, Verena Bosshart, and Monique Dupuis-Leopoldoff