Ronald Braunstein

Braunstein was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a child he played piano, and studied violin with Eugene Phillips of the Pittsburgh Symphony. As a teenager he began composing music and attended the North Carolina School of the Arts. He graduated with a diploma in music composition.

In 1973 Braunstein began his undergraduate degree at the Juilliard School of Music where he studied composition with Elliott Carter and Milton Babbitt. That same year he was awarded the BMI Student Composition Award.[1] He then changed his course of study and graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Music in conducting in 1978.

During the summers, Braunstein received further education while attending the Salzburg Mozarteum, Fontainbleau, and Tanglewood Music Center where he conducted in the masterclasses of Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.

In 1979, at the age of 23, Braunstein became the first American to win the First Prize Gold Medal in the Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition in Berlin.[2][3][4] He spent several years learning from Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

The Karajan Competition launched his career. Braunstein conducted orchestras all over the world, most notably the San Francisco Symphony,[5] Berlin Philharmonic, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Svizzera-Italiana Radio Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta, Auckland Philharmonia, Kyoto Symphony, Osaka Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, the Hague Philharmonic and the Oslo Philharmonic. He also served on the conducting staff at the Juilliard School of Music[6][7] and the American Opera Center.

External video
You may watch Ronald Braunstein and his Me2/Orchestra performing Ottorino Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No. 3 in 2014 here on archive.org

Braunstein was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1985.[8] The ups and downs of his career often followed the ecstatic mania and devastating depression associated with this disease. In 2011, he decided to create his own ensemble that would be for people living with mental illnesses and those who support the social mission of fighting stigma.

Braunstein and Caroline Whiddon (whom he later married) co-founded Me2/ ("me, too"), the world's only classical music organization created for individuals with mental illnesses and the people who support them.[9] The mission of the organization is to fight stigma surrounding mental illness at every opportunity.

Me2/ launched its flagship orchestra in Burlington, Vermont in September 2011. Three years later, the organization expanded grew to include an orchestra which soon became its central hub. Braunstein serves as Music Director and Conductor of both orchestras. The organization has since expanded with an additional orchestra in Manchester, NH and a Flute Choir in Boston, MA.[10]

In the years since launching Me2/, Braunstein has received international media exposure for bringing attention to mental health issues. Braunstein and Me2/ have been profiled by the New York Times,[11] Associated Press, BBC News,[12] and Al Jazeera America.[13]