Our Conductors
Andrew Hauze, DCYO Conductor 
A conductor, pianist, and organist, Andrew Hauze has been Music Director and Conductor of the Delaware County Youth Orchestra since 2014. He is also a Senior Lecturer in Music at Swarthmore College, where he has taught since 2006. At Swarthmore, Mr. Hauze directs the College Orchestra and Wind Ensemble and teaches musicianship, conducting, and orchestration.
With DCYO, Mr. Hauze has collaborated with guest artists Jennifer Montone, Marcantonio Barone, Randall Scarlata, David Kim, Lio Kuokman, and Udi Bar-David. Other recent performances include: piano soloist in Mozart’s Triple Piano Concerto, K. 242 and Piano Concerto no. 12, K. 414, both with Chamber Orchestra First Editions; music director of two multimedia programs featuring music of Stravinsky, Copland, and Britten in collaboration with Orchestra 2001; improvising organist for the 1929 silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera; and duo pianist with Marcantonio Barone at a Rachmaninoff symposium at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also been chosen as the volume editor of George Gershwin’s Song-Book for the Gershwin Critical Edition (University of Michigan).
Mr. Hauze has frequently collaborated as a guest pianist and conductor with Astral Artists. He has conducted works by Mozart, Knussen, and Golijov on Astral’s Philadelphia concert series, and he is a regular panelist for Astral’s National Auditions. Mr. Hauze has conducted productions of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti at Twickenham Fest in Huntsville, Alabama, Argento’s Postcard from Morocco at the Curtis Opera Theatre, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore, and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at Swarthmore College. He has also served as a vocal coach at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music and for the CoOperative Program at Westminster Choir College.
Mr. Hauze graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2007, where he majored in orchestral conducting. He received his B.A. in music from Swarthmore College and his A.A. from Bard College at Simon’s Rock. He also holds the Fellowship and Choirmaster certifications from the American Guild of Organists. His principal teachers have included Dennis Sweigart, Shelly Moorman-Stahlman, Anne Chamberlain, Albert Sly, Marcantonio Barone, Otto-Werner Mueller, and Jeffrey Brillhart.
Nicholas Pignataro, YMO Conductor 
In 2015, Nick Pignataro joined the Young Musicians’ Orchestra as Music Director and Conductor. He is a member of the faculty of Strath Haven High School, where he teaches music and directs the Symphony Orchestra, String Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band and Panther Marching Band. Before joining the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, Mr. Pignataro taught in the Penn-Delco School District and at St. Hilary of Poitiers School. In 2018, he was recognized with the Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union Excellence in Teaching Award, and in 2015, he received the Professional Hero Award from the Delaware County Right to Education Task Force for his work with students with special needs. Mr. Pignataro values technology as a teaching tool and became a Google Level 2 Certified Educator in 2020.
He has appeared as a conductor with Bravo Brass for five seasons and has acted as rehearsal conductor for the Drexel University Concert Band, the Drexel Orchestra, the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County Philharmonia and the Atlantic Brass Band. He served as the music director at St. Anne Church for their neighborhood classical music concert series “Music at St. Anne’s.”
In the world of theater, he has led performances at the Player’s Club of Swarthmore, the Sun Valley High School Theatre, and has served as music director for Cardinal O’Hara High School Theater and Upper Darby Summer Stage Children’s Theater.
Mr. Pignataro studied conducting with Paul Bryan of the Curtis Institute of Music and with Joseph Caminiti in West Chester University, where he earned a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting in 2018. He graduated from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance in 2011 with a degree in Music Education. At Temple, he studied trumpet with Eric Schweingruber and Roger Blackburn of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Pignataro and his wife Allie live in Delaware County where they enjoy cooking, exploring local wildlife and taking trips to the beach.