Grant Gershon, music director

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Conductor Grant Gershon, entering his 10th season as music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, is equally at home with symphonic and choral music, opera and musical theater. In 2001 he was appointed 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.” Opera News calls him “a first-rate conductor.” Composer John Adams declares, "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.

An ardent champion of new music, Mr. Gershon, who has led more than 75 performances with the Chorale at Disney Hall, has given numerous world premiere performances, including such major works as You Are (Variations) by Steve Reich; Requiem by Christopher Rouse; City of Dis by Louis Andriessen; Sang by Eve Beglarian; A Map of Los Angeles by David O; Spiral XII by Chinary Ung; Dream Variations by Andrea Clearfield; Music’s Music by Steven Sametz; Voici le soir by Morten Lauridsen; Messages and Brief Eternity by Bobby McFerrin and Roger Treece; Broken Charms by Donald Crockett; and Rezos (Prayers) by Tania León. He has also premiered works by John Adams, Ricky Ian Gordon, Billy Childs and Don Davis; and given American premieres of works by Esa-Pekka Salonen, James MacMillan, Sofia Gubaidulina and Mark Anthony Turnage, among others.

In 2008, Mr. Gershon made his highly acclaimed L.A. Opera debut leading eight performances of Verdi’s La Traviata, about which the Los Times declared, “Grant Gershon, best known as the music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, proved an exacting, sensitive, deeply involving Verdi conductor. Indeed, I could have been tricked into thinking that one of the world’s top orchestras was in the pit, so well did the L.A. Opera orchestra play.” This coming September, Gershon will lead the world premiere performances at L.A. Opera of Daniel Catán’s highly anticipated Il Postino, featuring Plácido Domingo, and he will make his Santa Fe Opera debut in 2011, conducting Peter Sellars’ new production of Vivaldi’s Griselda.

He has worked closely with many leading conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Mr. Gershon has also appeared as guest conductor with Los Angeles Philharmonic, 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 enjoyed a long and fruitful artistic relationship.

Additionally, in 2006, he 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. In 2007, he conducted the Minnesota Opera’s world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s acclaimed opera The Grapes of Wrath and led subsequent performances of the work with the Utah Symphony. In 2007, he also conducted the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus presentation of a new opera, The Keepers of the Night, by Peter Ash and Donald Sturrock, and made his debut at the Berkshire Choral Festival. As an educator, he previously served as Music Director of the Idyllwild Arts Festival Chorus.

Mr. Gershon’s discography includes two Grammy Award-nominated recordings: Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) and Ligeti’s Grand Macabre (Sony Classical); as well as three with the Chorale: Glass-Salonen (RCM), You Are (Variations) (Nonesuch), honored with the WQXR Gramophone America Award in 2006 and selected by The New York Times, Washington Post and Newsday, among others, as one the top ten classical recordings of the year, and Daniel Variations (Nonesuch), described by UK’s Guardian as “a searching, serious piece… one of Reich’s major statements.” He also conducted the cast recording of the opera The Grapes of Wrath (PS Classics).

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 formerly 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. He has also prepared choruses for Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Simon Rattle and Zubin Mehta. Mr. Gershon is in demand as a pianist for such leading singers as Peter Schreier, Rod Gilfry and Audra McDonald, and accompanied Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras in separate appearances on “The Tonight Show.” In addition, he has conducted choral recording sessions for the motion picture sound tracks of I Am Legend, Charlie Wilson’s War, Lady in the Water, Click and License to Wed, and recorded vocal solos for The X Files: I Want To Believe. On screen, Mr. Gershon appeared as a pianist in two episodes of the hit television series “Cheers.”

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 Advisors and the Board of Directors of Chorus America. # # # (5/20/10)

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

“That Gershon commands forces expertly is something he has shown time and again at the Master Chorale.”

– Los Angeles Times

“Grant Gershon, best known as the music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, proved an exacting, sensitive, deeply involving Verdi conductor. Indeed, I could have been tricked into thinking that one of the world’s top orchestras was in the pit, so well did the L.A. Opera orchestra play. Blindfolded, I might have even been tricked into thinking the Pavilion was acoustically satisfactory.

“That Gershon commands forces expertly is something he has shown time and again at the Master Chorale, so the party scenes with the chorus and the many singers in small roles were handled with confidence. But it was in his attention to the individual singers and sheer beauty of string he got from the orchestra where Gershon came into his own. Despite the clichés on stage – the angel of death comes to walk Violetta away – this performance was musically scrubbed clean of convention. Verdi’s harmonies stood out with emotional directness. Inner lines were brought forth with maximum clarity. Not a moment passed that didn’t sound right or riveting.

Gershon has always shown a talent for opera. He chose the choral world instead. But after this “Traviata,” I don’t expect the opera companies are going to leave him alone.”

—Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

“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

“…another innovative, sometimes off-kilter program that was unafraid to mix up the idioms, stretch outside the sanctified boundaries of so-called classical music, and provide a contemporary music experience that was both thoughtful and entertaining. This is what Gershon has done best in his nine years here – and it dovetailed right into the eclectic mission of West Coast, Left Coast. He even made a point of having all four of the evening’s composers present at the pre-concert talk and curtain calls, as if to shout that there is still plenty of life in the choral medium.”

—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

05/20/10