Mary Ellen Kitchens
Mary Ellen Kitchens was born in Houston, Texas. She began studying piano and cello at an early age. After graduating from high school in New York, she attended Yale University (USA) and completed a year abroad in Paris (École Normale de la Musique, Sorbonne).
In 1980 she moved to Munich, where she continued her studies at Ludwig Maximilian University and completed her M.A. in musicology. She also attended courses on conducting with Rodney Wynkoop (Yale), Pierre Dervaux (Paris), Sergiù Celibidache (Munich) and Julius Kalmar (Vienna).
From 1984 to 1991, Mary Ellen Kitchens led the Haydn Orchestra in Munich, of which she was co-founder. Since 1991, she has presided over the Kempten / Allgäu Orchestra. In that same year she began her position in the audio archives of Bavarian Radio Broadcasting (BR), which she has led full–time since January 2004. She has been the musical director of the Munich International Choral Society since 1986.
