Sheldon Bair is the Founder and Music Director of the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra (SSO – Maryland), a community orchestra of over 75 members currently in its 49th season.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from Elizabethtown College (Pennsylvania) and a master’s degree from Towson University (Maryland). In addition, his post-graduate studies include classes at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. Bair has studied conducting with Witold Rowicki in Vienna, Marc Mostovoy, William Hudson, and Leonid Grin.
Bair taught orchestra and other music classes for 40 years for the Harford County Public School system (Maryland) where he was inducted into the Educator Hall of Fame in 2018. Bair is currently an adjunct faculty member at Harford Community College, is on the conducting staff for the Elizabethtown College Music Camp, and is often invited to conduct and adjudicate youth orchestras and soloists. In November 2000, Bair was bestowed the Paderewski Award for Contributions to Society and Culture at the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. Bair participated in the Sixth Malcolm Arnold Festival in Northampton, UK, in the fall of 2011 by introducing Arnold’s 9th Symphony at the final Gala Concert.
Bair, a member of ASCAP, has composed over twenty works for student string orchestra (published by Howard Publications in Maryland), plus works for orchestra, and for church choir. In addition, Bair has arranged three Christmas Sing-Alongs (published by Theodore Presser) and has also composed and arranged many other works for the Susquehanna Symphony. His “The Homefront 1944” was premiered in November 2022 by the Worthing Symphony Orchestra and was also performed by the Ealing Symphony, both in England. Bair was a 2025 American Prize finalist for “The Homefront 1944” which is quite an honor. In 2025, Bair was named a Harford County Living Treasure by the Harford County Council.
For more information and to purchase Maestro Bair’s compositions, visit his site.
