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About Grant Gershon

Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale
2007|08 Season

(long bio)

Conductor Grant Gershon is equally at home with symphonic and choral music, opera and musical theater. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which the Los Angeles Times has proclaimed “the most exciting chorus in the country under Gershon’s leadership.” According to composer John Adams, "Grant Gershon is one of those rarities we call 'the complete musician'. My respect for his musicality — for his conducting, his extraordinary musical intuition and his formidable ear — knows no bounds.” In addition to his post with the Chorale, Mr. Gershon was named Associate Conductor/Chorus Master of the LA Opera beginning in the 2007|08 Season. His contract with the Chorale extends through the 2010|11 Season.

An ardent champion of new music, Mr. Gershon has given many world premiere performances, including major works by John Adams, Steve Reich, Ricky Ian Gordon, Christopher Rouse, Billy Childs, Don Davis, Tania León and Bobby McFerrin; as well as American premieres of works by Esa-Pekka Salonen, James MacMillan, Sofia Gubaidulina and Mark Anthony Turnage. His Nonesuch recording with the LA Master Chorale of Steve Reich’s You Are (Variations) was honored with the WQXR Gramophone America Award for 2006. The New York Times, Washington Post and Newsday, among others, selected it as one of the top ten classical recordings of 2005. In 2002 he made his first CD with the Master Chorale, featuring the world premiere recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s first choral work as well as Philip Glass’s Itaipú (RCM 12004). His latest recording with the Chorale, Steve Reich’s Daniel Variations, is due to be released on Nonesuch in spring 2008.

Mr. Gershon has appeared as guest conductor with the Houston Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Swedish Royal Opera, Juilliard Opera Theatre, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Finnish chamber orchestra Avanti!, among others. He has also led performances at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals, including the Ravinia, Edinburgh, Vienna, Aspen and Helsinki festivals as well as the Roma-Europa Festival and the Festival Otonno in Madrid. Many of these appearances have been as music director for projects by famed director Peter Sellars with whom Mr. Gershon has had a long artistic relationship.

Mr. Gershon has served as chorus master on two Grammy Award-nominated CDs, Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) and Ligeti’s Grand Macabre (Sony Classical). He recently appeared on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center leading the LA Master Chorale in vocal works of Steve Reich, and on the Making Music Series at Zankel Hall. Last spring he conducted the Utah Symphony in performances of Ricky Ian Gordon’s acclaimed new opera Grapes of Wrath. As an educator, for the past four summers he has served as Music Director of the Idyllwild Arts Festival Chorus. Additionally, this summer, he conducts the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus presentation of a new opera, The Keepers of the Night, by Peter Ash and Donald Sturrock, and makes his debut at the Berkshire Choral Festival.

Prior to joining the Chorale, Mr. Gershon served as Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1994 to 1997, during which time he led performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Hollywood Bowl. Mr. Gershon also served as Assistant Conductor / Principal Pianist with LA Opera from 1988 to 1994, where he participated in over 40 productions and garnered a reputation as one of the country’s exceptional vocal coaches.

He has also served as Assistant Conductor at the Salzburg Festival, the Berlin Staatsoper and the Festival Aix-En-Provence, working with conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Barenboim and Claudio Abbado respectively. Mr. Gershon is in demand as a pianist for such leading singers as Kiri Te Kanawa, Peter Schreier, Rod Gilfry and Audra McDonald. He received his bachelor of music degree cum laude in piano performance from USC, and was named USC Thornton School of Music Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in May 2002. He currently serves on the USC Thornton Board of Councilors.

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(short bio)

Conductor Grant Gershon is equally at home with symphonic and choral music, opera and musical theater. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Grammy-nominated Los Angeles Master Chorale, which the Los Angeles Times has proclaimed “the most exciting chorus in the country under Gershon’s leadership.” In addition to his post with the Chorale, Mr. Gershon was named Associate Conductor/Chorus Master of the LA Opera beginning in the 2007|08 Season. His contract with the Chorale extends through the 2010|11 Season. The conductor, pianist and vocalist has expanded the Chorale’s repertoire considerably, conducting dozens of world, U.S., West Coast and Los Angeles premieres. He has conducted three recordings with the chorus, including two world premiere recordings on Nonesuch of works by Steve Reich — You Are (Variations) and Daniel Variations — and the world premiere recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s first choral work paired with Philip Glass’s Itaipú. Mr. Gershon recently conducted the Minnesota Opera’s world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s acclaimed opera, The Grapes of Wrath, and subsequent performances of the opera with the Utah Symphony. He has also guest conducted the San Antonio Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, Juilliard Opera Theatre, the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Finnish chamber orchestra Avanti!, among others. Mr. Gershon, who made recently made his conducting debut at the Berkshire Choral Festival, has served as Music Director of the Idyllwild Arts Festival Choir since 2003. He previously served as assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1994-97, and was Assistant Conductor/Principal Pianist with the LA Opera from 1988 to 1994, where he participated in over 40 productions and garnered a reputation as one of the country’s exceptional vocal coaches. Mr. Gershon currently serves on the USC Thornton Board of Councilors.

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7-28-07

Press quotes about conductor Grant Gershon

“An invigorating, inventive and enormously gifted young conductor” —Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

“A first-rate conductor” —Opera News

“What really impressed was the needle-sharp quality of musical execution under Grant Gershon. This was as fine a reading as the piece [Greek by Mark Anthony Turnage] can hope to have...” —Andrew Clark, Financial Times

“...[John] Adams’ music, conducted ebulliently by Grant Gershon” —Time Magazine

“The performance positively glitters; it seems quite clear that the Los Angeles Master Chorale under Grant Gershon is responding to the work’s intrinsic glow, the sense of spontaneity – the swing – in the music that Reich has rediscovered.” —Ivan Moody, Gramophone

“The performance was fluid, with voices blending seamlessly. At the end of a splendid, transcendent performance, the audience didn’t so much leap to its feet as levitate. —Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

“Grant Gershon, music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, has made the ensemble into an important part of the city's cultural life.” —Timothy Mangan, Orange County Register

“The Los Angeles Master Chorale and its music director, Grant Gershon, for whom it (You Are-Variations) was composed, gave the whole work a cogent, sizzling performance at Lincoln Center last weekend." —The Wall Street Journal

“Last week’s Master Chorale concert at Disney offered fair evidence of Grant Gershon’s enterprise in building his ensemble into a significant part of our musical life, offering concerts for the thinking listener as well as the pleasure-seeking.” —Alan Rich, L.A. Weekly

“Mr. Gershon’s sharp ensemble revealed the work as one of Mr. Reich’s most radiant, inviting creations.” —The New York Times

“On this occasion [the premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Requiem], nearly 240 performers filled the stage and chorus benches of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Gershon led them with passion, élan and focus.” —Musical America

“The Master Chorale and its orchestra have been making enormous strides technically under Gershon's direction. Rouse's Requiem is their biggest challenge to date. The performance was comprehensive and exalted.” —Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

“Music Director Grant Gershon again proved he’s the master of the Chorale.” —San Francisco Classical Voice

“[Peter] Sellars’ staging works up a propulsive energy, with incalculable help from Grant Gershon’s driving rock-band direction” —New York Newsday

“Grant Gershon conducted a terrific performance [of Daniel Variations by Steve Reich], one that took in the big picture but also delighted in rhythmically difficult details. Little surprise that these are the forces that will record the work for Nonesuch next month.” —Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

07/30/07