“Charles R. ‘Chuck’ Ellis, music director of the Prince George’s Philharmonic Orchestra and a frequent panelist on WBJC-FM Radio’s ‘Face the Music’ program, died New Year’s Day from cardiac arrhythmia at Medstar Union Memorial Hospital,” writes Frederick N. Rasmussen on Tuesday (1/12) in the Baltimore Sun. “The longtime Hampden resident was 67.” Born and raised in the Boston area, Ellis earned a bachelor’s degree in music at Indiana University, a master’s at New England Conservatory, and a doctorate at Peabody Conservatory. He served as music director of the Levine Chamber Orchestra, comprising faculty and advanced students from the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C., and from 1985 to 1992 was associate conductor of the Jacksonville (Fla.) Symphony Orchestra. In 1993 he was appointed resident conductor of the Prince George’s Philharmonic Orchestra, in Maryland’s Prince George’s County near Washington, D.C., and became its music director in 2001. His conducting activities also included guest engagements at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Florida Symphony Orchestra, as well as in Syracuse, N.Y.; Columbus, Ohio; Charlotte, N.C.; and Savannah, Ga. Ellis’s survivors include his wife, the former Anna Andersen, and a sister, Patricia Kirkbride.
Posted January 14, 2016
