Leif Bjaland is one of the most dynamic and exciting American conductors now before the public. Since his appointment as artistic director/conductor of the Florida West Coast Symphony in Sarasota in March 1997, the charismatic Bjaland has propelled the orchestra to new artistic heights. "The growth and maturity of the Florida West Coast Symphony seems to be unfolding right before our ears," stated the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "Each concert is better that the previous one." Season 2006-07 marked his tenth with the Florida West Coast Symphony. In addition, Maestro Bjaland has completed ten seasons as music director of the Waterbury Symphony where he has received enormous enthusiasm and critical praise for his performances and imaginative programming.

A popular and active guest conductor, Bjaland made his debut at the 2003 Ravinia Festival conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a program entitled "Bernstein on Broadway" also involving soloists, chorus and dancers. He has most recently appeared as guest conductor with the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Kalamazoo and Marin.

Other orchestras which he has guest conducted include the National Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Fort Worth, Nashville, Detroit, Rochester, Utah, Madison, Akron, Fort Wayne, Fresno, Des Moines, Mobile, San Jose, Rhode Island, Virginia, Harrisburg, Colorado, Long Beach, Chicago's Symphony II, Grand Rapids, Flint, Greater Bridgeport, and New World. He led the Cincinnati Symphony at an opening concert of a Riverbend summer season, and conducted at Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival in consecutive summers of 1995 and 1996. In 2001, Leif Bjaland conducted the opening week of the Interlochen Arts Festival. He guest conducted the Young Artists Orchestra at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in July 2002 culminating in a performance in Ozawa Hall.

Maestro Bjaland is also an active opera conductor and assisted in the production of David Carlson's The Midnight Angel at Glimmerglass Opera. He conducted the Florida Grand Opera in three productions in four years including a highly acclaimed Don Giovanni a triple bill of one-act operas by Manuel de Falla - El Amor Brujo, Master Peter's Puppet Show and La Vida Breve; and Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. Bjaland received great attention and critical acclaim when he gave the world premiere concert performance of George Chadwick's opera The Padrone. In 2000-01 Leif Bjaland conducted a new commission by the Florida West Coast Symphony of David Carlson's Quantumsymphony.

Maestro Bjaland has conducted in Europe and Asia. He conducted the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to great acclaim with six performances of three programs. He has conducted the Malmo Symphony in Sweden and he also took that country's Gavleborgs Symphony Orchestra on a four-city tour. He conducted the Orchestra of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in Oslo in a concert televised throughout Scandinavia and he conducted Coppelia at the Ballet de L'Opera Royal de Wallonie in Liege, Belgium. He has conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonic as well as the Philippine Philharmonic in Manila. The latter appearance led to an immediate invitation to return to that city to conduct a new production of Madama Butterfly for the Opera Company of the Philippines.

Maestro Bjaland was named resident conductor and artistic coordinator of the New World Symphony in 1989 and served in that capacity for four years. Following his debut conducting the orchestra and in his many subsequent appearances, he has received the all-out praise of the critics who have called him "a young sculptor in sound" and "one of the key figures in the development of the New World Symphony." Highlights of his residency with New World included his conducting the American premiere of the Frank Martin Symphony 1937 as well as the Florida premieres of the Martinu Symphony No. 5 and the Bruckner Symphony No. 2.

Leif Bjaland was selected by Leonard Bernstein in 1988 to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at several concerts as part of the American Conductors Program. He led the Chicagoans in Richard Strauss' tone poem Till Eulenspiegel of which Chicago Tribune critic John von Rhein said "Bjaland clearly has the most experience, the best technique and the best musical command." In the summer of 1990, Bjaland was invited by Leonard Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas to participate in the premiere season of the Pacific Music Festival in Japan where he conducted the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra and the Sapporo Symphony in the Festival's closing performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

From 1986-1990, Maestro Bjaland was affiliate artist assistant conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure he conducted the orchestra in many highly praised subscription concerts and also served as music director of the award-winning San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra which he took on an Asian tour in July 1989; and to Italy, France and Spain in the summer of 1992. Prior to his appointment at the San Francisco Symphony, Mr. Bjaland was a professor of music at Yale University and served as music director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, which he led on a very successful tour of Europe in 1985.

A native of Michigan, Leif Bjaland received his Master's degree in music from the University of Michigan where he was a student of Gustav Meier and Elizabeth A.H. Green. He is the recipient of an honorary doctor of music degree, conferred by Susquehanna University.