Music Director / Conductor

His many theater conducting credits include THE THREE PENNY OPERA with Sting on Broadway and Stephen Paulus's HESTER PRYNNE AT DEATH at the 92nd Street Y.  He composed, orchestrated, and conducted the music for CHARLOTTE: LIFE? OR THEATER?, a music theater work based on the life and work of artist Charlotte Salomon, which received its world premiere performance to critical acclaim at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia in March, 2001 and has been performed in concert version in Washington, D.C., St. Petersburg, Russia, London and Amsterdam. His Dramatic Song Cycle, John Adams in Amsterdam: A Song for Abigail, with lyrics by Terry Quinn, received its world premiere performance at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam before Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands in April, 2005.

Mr. Fagin studied composition with George Crumb and George Rochberg at The University of Pennsylvania; cello with Orlando Cole of The Curtis Quartet; and conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller at The Yale School of Music, where he received the first Doctorate Degree in Conducting ever awarded by Yale. He is Founder and Director of The New York Conducting Studio; his students conduct major and regional orchestras, on Broadway, and attend America's most prestigious music conservatories.

For four seasons Mr. Fagin's arrangements were broadcast weekly on Garrison Keillor's PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION on American Public Radio. He has orchestrated music for the Boston Pops, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Sandy Duncan, Tom Chapin and for recordings by Rob Fisher and The Coffee Club Orchestra and The Manhattan Rhythm Kings. His transcriptions of works by Duke Ellington are available through The Smithsonian Jazz Anthology. As a cellist and bassist he recorded with the folk musician Bill Crofut.

Mr. Fagin is former Chairperson of Community Board No. 1's Seaport/Civic Center Committee and co-founder and co-director of the Seaport Community Coalition. A longtime Lower Manhattan resident, he lives in the South Street Seaport with his wife and daughter.