Winner of the 2019 Respighi Prize in Conducting, Caleb's vibrant and collaborative energy on the podium is equally at home with symphony orchestras, choral ensembles, opera, and ballet. A specialist of the symphonic choral repertory and champion of interdisciplinary performance, he keeps an active performance schedule as both a conductor and pianist, regularly crossing genres and styles both on the podium and at the keyboard.

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Caleb has led performances on three continents. He made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting Chamber Orchestra of New York and returned to CONY as a season-long Apprentice Conductor which culminated in assisting CONY on their recording of Respighi songs for NAXOS Records. In recent seasons he has guest conducted for Ensemble CONCEPT/21, Chicago Latino Music Festival, American Bach Society, and the Idaho All-State Orchestra. Through competitive conducting fellowships, Caleb has led public performances with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Tokyo Sinfonia, and University of British Columbia Chamber Orchestra Festival. He currently serves as Head of Music for West Michigan Opera Project, Lead Répétiteur and Assistant Chorus Master for Opera Grand Rapids and as a studio pianist for Grand Rapids Ballet.

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A passionate performance pedagogue, Caleb has been involved in performance education at all levels of training, serving as Music Director of the Elkhart County Youth Honors Orchestra and Conducting Fellow of the South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestra. In February 2025, he served as the clinical for the Idaho All-State Orchestra. As Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Grand Rapids Community College, he oversaw one of the most active and comprehensive undergraduate choral programs in Michigan. In just the 2 ½ years post COVID restrictions, the GRCC choral ensembles performed multiple choral masterworks, including Carmina burana, Little Match Girl Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, and the Michigan Premiere of Emerson Eads’ Mass for the Oppressed and collaborated with Opera Grand Rapids to present students in four mainstage opera productions. Before arriving to Gand Rapids, he served at University of Notre Dame, where he was Music Director for Our Lady’s Consort, Artistic Director of Gold & Blue Co., and as the inaugural Staff Music Director for the University’s Musical Theatre program. He continues his work as a performance pedagogue through masterclasses, private coachings, and clinics.

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An active performer of and advocate for living composers, Caleb served as the Conducting Area Coordinator and Principal Conductor of the American Creators Ensemble at the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium at University of Oregon from 2016 until 2019. During his four-year tenure as Associate Conductor of Ensemble CONCEPT/21, he mentored young composers through EC/21’s New Voices in Michiana education initiative, connecting student composers with some of the nation’s top professional composers and composition teachers. He has performed over 30 world premieres, including orchestral works, ballet, piano solos, chamber music, and choral works. He has additionally presented numerous regional premieres, including the Michigan Premiere of Philip Glass’ Piano Concerto No. 3 and the American continental premiere of Ennio Morricone’s enigmatic Se questo è un uomo. He recently returned to the Ensemble CONCEPT/21 podium to lead the performances of the final chamber music compositions of Carmen-Helena Téllez.

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An accomplished pianist, Caleb has presented recital performances in every region of the United States in venues ranging from Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, to a former furniture factory in Indiana, to college and university concert halls, to the historic Atlas Theatre in Washington DC. His repertoire encompasses solo, chamber music, and concertos, with an emphasis on music of the Americas. He has appeared as a featured soloist with Great Noise Ensemble, South Bend Symphony, and at the Walden Chamber Music Society. A composer of small-form works, his compositions have performed across the United States and internationally in Poland and Japan. His choral music was performed at Library of Congress as part of a symposium on American Choral Music.

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Caleb’s scholarship examines the intersection between music, ritual, and cultural identity. His dissertation research focused on the relationship between Lutheran homiletics and ritual expressed in the Latin Psalm works of Sebastian Knüpfer. Through grants from the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, Caleb conducted primary source research at Oxford University and at the Sächsische Landesbibliothek Staats und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden and presented the very first complete performance of Sebastian Knüpfer’s corpus of Latin Psalm Concertos, many of them receiving their first performance in North America. His more recent scholarship explores interdisciplinary performance practice and equity in career pathways in professional performing arts. He has recently delivered papers for the American Bach Society and at the Berklee College of Music Valencia.

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As a first-generation Iranian-American, Caleb's commitment to cultivating community and belonging is deeply personal. He served on the NextGen Advisory Board for the Mayor of Grand Rapids and is an advocate for the presence of queer folks in religious spaces. He is a regular volunteer for improving green spaces in city neighborhoods and maintaining public parks. He enjoys distance running and regularly incorporates body movement and holistic wellness into his music performance pedagogy.

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Caleb is a graduate of University of Notre Dame where he completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Conducting under the mentorship of Venezuelan conductor Carmen-Helena Téllez. He previously studied at The Catholic University of America, where he served as University Organist, and at Saint John’s University (Minnesota), where he was a Theodore Presser Scholar. His conducting teachers include Nancy Menk, Leo Nestor, Jan Harrington, John Farrer, and Howard Williams. He is currently based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.