Eliza Rubenstein is the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Orange Coast College and was the Artistic Director of the Long Beach Chorale & Chamber Orchestra until 2020. She has also been the Artistic Director for the Orange County Women’s Chorus  since January 2000. Born into a musical family in Missouri, she told her parents when she was four that she wanted to take violin lessons so that she could “play on street corners for money” when she grew up. Though that particular career path was diverted, she studied choral conducting and English literature at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music before moving to California to earn her master’s degree at UC-Irvine. Choruses under her direction have performed throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, and she made her Carnegie Hall debut in June 2017, conducting the Carnegie premiere of Kirke Mechem’s choral-orchestral cantata “Songs of the Slave.” She also serves on the board of the California Choral Directors’ Association as the editor of the award-winning Cantate magazine.

Eliza is a former animal-shelter supervisor and the co-author of a book about dog adoption; she even presented a seminar called “Sit, Stay, Sing!: What Choral Conductors Can Learn from Dog Trainers” at the 2006 ACDA western-division convention. She is an avid dog sports competitor. Her family includes her partner, Julie, and four dogs. When not making music, Eliza is passionate about photography, grammar, vegan food, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the St. Louis Blues.