Dr. Tom Zelle serves as the music director and conductor of the North Park University Orchestra and is active as a choral conductor, clinician, church musician, and educator. Under his direction, the orchestra studies and performs a wide range of orchestral literature from the Baroque era to the present, and periodically collaborates with vocalists and other ensembles.

A native of Hamburg, Germany, Zelle received his initial musical training at the conservatory of Lübeck. Zelle credits his artistic influences to his studies with Sergiu Celibidache, which led him to specialize his musical training in non-dual and phenomenological applications to music practice and orchestral conducting.

Zelle has given master classes for orchestra conductors in Venezuela as part of the El Sistema youth orchestra program and now works closely with an El Sistema-inspired youth orchestra program in Chicago. He also partners with the People’s Music School to provide orchestra training to elementary students at Albany Park schools.

Zelle is music director at Sauganash Community Church in Chicago and maintains a private studio. He also serves as the principal guest conductor of the Sangrock Music Festival and as artistic director of the East West Music Festival in South Korea.