The Life Sciences Orchestra (LSO) is the symphonic orchestra for members of the life sciences community at the University of Michigan.

The LSO is part of the Arts in Health program, which brings the world of art and music to Michigan Medicine. Now in its twentieth season, the LSO plays two concerts a year at Hill Auditorium, drawing more than 1,000 community members and friends and family of the extended University of Michigan life sciences community.

The orchestra was founded in fall of 2000 by a small group of musicians and artists at the University of Michigan Medical School and the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers under the umbrella of the Gifts of Art Program. The concept was to provide a performance outlet for the many faculty, staff, students, alumni and volunteers in life science disciplines at the university who had previous musical training but few opportunities to play.

The LSO offers musicians in the life sciences an opportunity to play in a large ensemble, while building a sense of community across the different components of the life sciences on the University of Michigan campus. It also offers conducting students from U-M’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance an opportunity to lead a full symphony orchestra in preparing and playing major works of the classical repertoire.

Executive Committee

The LSO is run by a volunteer executive committee that meets throughout the year to plan and coordinate all LSO activities in conjunction with the music director.

The committee relies on the staff of the Arts in Health program, the LSO’s parent organization, for administrative and financial duties.

You can reach the committee by emailing [email protected].

Music Director

Yeo Ryeong Ahn - Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D. Music Director of the U-M Life Sciences Orchestra

Yeo Ryeong Ahn is becoming increasingly acclaimed for her appearances on the podiums of major orchestras worldwide. In the United States, this summer of 2022, she was selected to be the only conducting fellow in the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Also, she was a 2021 Fellow in the highly prestigious Dallas Opera Hart Institute for Women Conductors, and has conducted the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, among others. In Europe, she has conducted Bamberger Symphoniker and Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz in Germany and the Paris Mozart Orchestra. She has also appeared with the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in Norway, and the Danubia Orchestra Óbuda in Hungary. She also participated in the Järvi Conducting Academy at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia. Recently, she was advanced to the final stages in the La Maestra Competition in Paris, the Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition in Monaco, and the Gustav Mahler Competition in Germany.

She began studying conducting at the Korea National University of Arts, where she received a bachelor’s degree. Later, as an honored recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, she earned a Master of Music at the University of Illinois under the guidance of Donald Schleicher. She is currently studying orchestral conducting with renowned pedagogue and conductor Kenneth Kiesler at the University of Michigan. Her teachers have also included Peter Eötvös, Johannes Schlaefli, Christian Ehwald, and Paavo Järvi, among others.