Shirley Morgenstern, President and CEO of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, is also a founder of the Cleveland POPS Orchestra, along with her husband Carl Topilow. Morgenstern combines her key role with that of head of the well-known Morgenstern Dance Studio and her equally hectic career of gifted entertainer and choreographer. She is also the innovator and designer of Actual Music.
She serves as regional director of the International Tap Association. Protégé of the late Dave Morgenstern and student of dance legends like Henry LeTang, Ms. Morgenstern is in demand from coast to coast as an entertainer and tap workshop leader.
An active board member of the Beachwood, Ohio Chamber of Commerce, she co-chaired the highly successful Beachwood Business Show and has headed promotional campaigns for Swingos Restaurant, Tower City, the United States Amateur Ballroom Association, and the International Dance and Exercise Association. She appears as featured dancer in many Cleveland Pops Orchestra productions.
One of the better known singer-actors in Northeastern, Ohio, Bass-baritone Gordon Leigh Petitt is now making new friends with his critically acclaimed appearances with The Cleveland Pops Orchestra. Petitt is familiar to Cleveland audiences from his numerous leading roles with Cleveland Opera and Cleveland Opera Ensemble. Among these is the title role in Rigoletto, the four villains in The Tales of Hoffman, John Proctor in The Crucible, Giorgio Germont in La Traviata, Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe and Doctor Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Equally comfortable in popular music and musical theater, Petitt has won plaudits for his Billy Bigelow in Carousel, Emile de Becque in South Pacific and the dual roles of Fred and Petruccio in Kiss Me, Kate. He is also a frequent soloist in cantatas and oratorios. His bass-baritone can be heard as Simeon on the recently released recording of Randall Thompson’s Nativity According to Saint Luke on the KOCH International Label.
A native of Cleveland, Gordon Leigh Petitt received much of his vocal training at The Cleveland Institute of Music with George Vassos, The Cleveland Music School Settlement with Pauline Thesmacher and with opera diva Eva Licova. He has received coaching from Courtney Kenny, Robert Sadin and the legendary French baritone Gerard Souzay. Mr. Petitt holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Case Western Reserve University.
J.c. Sherman holds Bachelors of Music in Music Education and Tuba Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Ronald Bishop and Raymond Premru. He is currently the Principal Tubist with Opera Cleveland and the Firelands Symphony Orchestra, and as a freelance low brass musician he has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, The Cleveland POPS Orchestra, Blossom Festival Band, Cleveland Opera Orchestra, Heritage Brass Quintet, Olympic Brass, NEOTUBA, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, and many others. His performances have utilized Tuba, Euphonium, Bass and Tenor Trombone, Cimbasso, Contrabass Trombone, as well as other historic, rare and unique instruments. In addition, Mr. Sherman enjoys performing early jazz with local 20’s style and Dixieland bands. J.c. teaches privately at Academy Music, Cleveland Heights and Solon.
Music Director and Conductor Carl Topilow is renowned worldwide as a multi-talented virtuoso, equally at home in classical and popular music, both as conductor and clarinetist. He is co-founder of Cleveland POPS, along with Shirley Morgenstern, his wife and President and CEO of the orchestra. Carl also serves as Conductor and Director of the Orchestral Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music where he is now in his 32nd year. He also recently celebrated his 34th anniversary as Music Director and Conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra’s summer music festival in Breckenridge, Colorado. Maestro Topilow has served as Principal Pops Conductor for the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. As guest conductor, he has appeared with over 100 orchestras around the world including orchestras in China, England, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela, as well as in 30 states. Carl was appointed conductor of the Firelands Symphony Orchestra (Sandusky, Ohio) in 2008.
Carl was educated at the Manhattan School of Music and has held conducting fellowships with the National Orchestral Association and the Aspen Music Festival. He began his professional career as Exxon Arts Endowment Conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra.