BIO

Driven by her strong belief in the healing and transformative powers of music, sheis committed to making music accessible to audiences of all ages. She serves as Music and Artistic Director of the Texas Medical Center Orchestra, a nationally recognized ensemble she founded in 2000, reshaping Houston’s arts landscape through innovative programming and dynamic leadership.

 

Recent career highlights include winning the 2025 American Prize in Conducting, being named a 2025 Honored Artist of The American Prize, and receiving the Best Female Conductor Prize and Third Prize Overall at the Second International Orchestra’s Conductors Competition.

 

Passionate about outreach and community engagement, Lebel actively fosters collaborations between music, visual arts, and dance, and builds partnerships with public schools in underserved communities and with local medical organizations. In 2010, following her father's diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, she helped establish the Gran Fondo Texas charity bike ride, benefiting both the Multiple Sclerosis Society and TMCO. Since its inception, the ride has welcomed over 16,000 riders and played a crucial role in sustaining the orchestra.

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, TMCO gained international recognition through avirtual collaboration with Grammy Award-winning songwriter Diane Warren. The orchestra’s performance of “I’m Standing with You” garnered international acclaim and helped raise over $7 million for the United Nations COVID-19 Response Fund.

 

Lebel holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School and a Master of Music in Conducting from Westminster Choir College. Her conducting mentors include Josef Flummerfelt, Leonid Korchmar, Piotr Gribanov, Robert Franz, Kenneth Kiesler, and Eduardo Portal.

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She has served as Principal Conductor of Princeton University’s Sinfonia and has appeared as guest conductor with various orchestral and choral ensembles, including the Westminster Community Orchestra, Garden State Philharmonic Chorus, Brazosport Symphony Orchestra, Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Congress Orchestra, Bacau Symphony Orchestra, Socrates Symphony Orchestra, Ploiesti Philharmonic, Moldova Teleradio Orchestra, Vidin Sinfonietta, the Banda Sinfônica Jovem de Goiás, and the Orquestra Sinfônica de Goiânia. 

 

Lebel feels blessed to have been able to share her passion for music with the Houston community, where she lives with her husband and three children. She is a well-recognized figure locally, celebrated for her contributions to both the arts and medical communities, and is frequently invited as a guest speaker. As a testament to her impact, she has received the Houston YWCA Outstanding Woman of the Arts Award, was honored with the Houston Top 20 Impact MakerAward, and was named one of Houston’s Top 30 Most Influential Women of 2025.

 

Reflecting on her passion for music, she says:

 

“What inspires me is to make music come alive. It affords us an opportunity toconnect to the very essence of our humanity, allowing us to come into contactwith that part of ourselves which expresses our most profound creativity.”