For the past fifteen years, conductor John Yaffé has been one of the most highly regarded members of New York City's musical community . He has performed in nearly all of the city's leading concert venues and has been lauded consistently by the New York Times and Opera News for his ability to inspire performances with "transcendent concentration, exemplary preparation, freedom, and commitment."

Born in Los Angeles, John Yaffé completed his conservatory studies there (piano with Charles Fierro, orchestral conducting with Lawrence Christianson, opera conducting with David Scott). This led him to Florence, Italy, where he studied the Italian opera repertoire in the master classes of the great baritone Tito Gobbi. Immediately thereafter, he was invited by Maestro Julius Rudel to join New York City Opera as an apprentice conductor. His work there led to his first professional engagements with symphony orchestras and opera houses in Maryland, Connecticut, Michigan, California, Washington, DC, and at the Wolf Trap Festival.

For ten years, he was engaged as Répétiteur and Conductor in the German opera houses of Hagen, Münster, Osnabrück and Stuttgart. While in Stuttgart, he served also as Music Director of the Stuttgarter Operettentheater and was a guest conductor with the Städtisches Orchester Remscheid, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Symphonie-Orchester Graunke of Munich, the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, and the Alt-Wiener-Strauss-Ensemble.

Subsequently, he was called back to the USA to lead the flourishing Florida Philharmonic Orchestra as its Resident Conductor. During his tenure, he conducted over 175 performances to critical acclaim.

Since 1996, John Yaffé has served as Orchestra Music Director of New York City's prestigious 92nd Street Y, as well as the Encompass New Opera Theater, and as a principal guest conductor at the Mannes College of Music. Between 1999 and 2004, he held the position of Music Director of New York's Centre Symphony.

In 2004, at the invitation of the American Embassy in Tirana, Albania, he led the first American musical ever produced in that country (West Side Story) to great acclaim.

He recently led the acclaimed Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra on their tour of the United States. Also in recent seasons, he has led a series of premiere performances for Carnegie Hall, the Colorado Springs Symphony, the Staten Island Symphony, and the Warsaw Philharmonic (Warsaw Autumn Contemporary Music Festival). Other guest engagements recently have included the San Antonio Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Walla Walla Symphony, Turkish State Opera, and Tanglewood.

John Yaffé currently resides in New York City with his wife, the singer Juliana Janes-Yaffé.