Labeled a “rising star” within the conducting world (Associated Press), conductor Chelsea Gallo has been praised for her ability to “lead the orchestra with grace and fiery command” (Michigan Daily.) Her conducting style has been described as “fully in control… stylish, skillful and attentive” (Dallas News.) 

For the 2025–2026 season, Gallo begins her third season as Resident Conductor of The Florida Orchestra (conducting over 50 performances), Principal Guest Conductor of the Orlando Philharmonic and returns to the New York Philharmonic to serve as an Assistant Conductor. She is the recipient of a 2025 OPERA America Marine Opera Grant, a winner of the Sir Georg Solti Career Assistance Grant and was an awardee of the Hart Conducting Fellowship with the Dallas Opera. Most recently, Gallo recorded the premiere album of the music from Johanna Senfter with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinlandpfalz in Germany under the Capriccio label. 

Upcoming debuts include engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dayton Opera (production of Carmen) Noord Nederlands Orkest (The Netherlands), the Knoxville Symphony, Opera Tampa (production of Macbeth), Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco (Mexico), and the New Mexico Philharmonic. Gallo has conducted leading orchestras and opera companies including the Utah Symphony, Dallas Opera, Louisiana Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Opera Orlando, Toledo Symphony, Hartford Opera, Missouri Symphony, Marigny Opera, Slovak Sinfonietta, Bozeman Symphony, the Sewanee Music Festival, Jackson Symphony, the Lancaster Symphony, and the Youngstown Symphony, amongst others. 

A passionate advocate for expanding classical music’s reach, Gallo has collaborated with a wide range of organizations and companies, including The Walt Disney Company, New York Yankees, NASA, and the Lincoln Motor Company. She describes her artistic mission as “a devotion to sharing the relevancy and humanity within classical music.”  

With a unique affinity for science and music, Gallo has spearheaded interdisciplinary projects uniting both worlds. She has partnered with NASA, Lockheed Martin, the National Institute of Aerospace, and the European Space Agency, and led recording projects for NASA’s Orion EFT-1 launch mission. Her ensemble became the official artistic partner for the Hubble Space Telescope’s 25th Anniversary Celebrations. She was recently invited by the University of Michigan’s Department of Nuclear Engineering to collaborate on a project exploring creativity in the hard sciences by drawing parallels between conducting an orchestra and managing a nuclear reactor.  

A champion of living composers, Gallo conducted the Michigan premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Helix, the American premiere of Michael Gordon’s Bassoon Concerto, and the world premiere of the ballet A Streetcar Named Desire by Tucker Fuller. During the 2025–26 season, she will give the U.S. premiere of Thierry Caens's Triple Trombone Concerto. Her opera credits include productions of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, and Don Giovanni, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Verdi’s La Traviata, Macbeth, and Falstaff, Bizet’s Carmen, Bernstein’s Candide, and Shuying Li’s Who Married Star Husbands.  

Gallo studied conducting in Vienna, Prague, and Banská Štiavnica with Leoš Svárovský and the late Maksimilijan Cenčić. In Vienna, she also studied piano with Giorgi Latsabidze and violin with Barbara Gorzynska. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan, where she studied under Kenneth Kiesler. Gallo has attended festivals and masterclasses with renowned conductors including Sir Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim.