Grant Gershon (born November 10, 1960) is a Grammy Award winning American conductor and pianist. He is Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, formerly Resident Conductor of the Los Angeles Opera, member of the Board of Councillors for the USC Thornton School of Music and a former member of the Chorus America Board of Directors.
Biography
Personal history
Gershon was born in Norwalk, California, and grew up in Alhambra, California. His mother was a piano teacher, and he began music lessons at 5 years old. After graduating from Alhambra High School, he entered Chapman College in Orange, California as a double major in piano and voice; he later transferred to the University of Southern California where he majored in piano. He eventually graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1985.
Gershon is married to soprano Elissa Johnston.
Professional career
Gershon has appeared as guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Juilliard Opera Theatre, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Finnish Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, among others. He has led performances at many of the world's most prestigious festivals, including the Salzburg Festival, Ravinia, Edinburgh, Vienna, Aspen, Ojai and Helsinki festivals as well as the Roma-Europa Festival and the Festival Otonno in Madrid.
He served as Assistant Conductor / Principal Pianist with Los Angeles 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 was named Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen in 1994, a position he held until 1997.
Early in his career he served as Assistant Conductor at the Salzburg Festival, the Berlin State Opera and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, working with conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Barenboim and Claudio Abbado. He has served as pianist for many artists on recording and in recital, including Kiri Te Kanawa, Peter Schreier, Rod Gilfry and Audra McDonald.
In May 2000, Gershon was named Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale effective Fall 2001, taking over for Paul Salamunovich who was retiring. He is only the fourth conductor to hold that title. During this time, he has conducted over 250 performances at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and has led the chorus in a number of world premieres, including: Iri da Iri by Esa-Pekka Salonen "the national anthems" by David Lang "Malhaar" by Swan Family Artist-in-Residence Reena Esmail Inscapes by Swan Family Composer-in-Residence Shawn Kirchner You Are (Variations) by Steve Reich Requiem by Christopher Rouse The City of Dis by Louis Andriessen "Los cantores de las montañas" (The Singing Mountaineers) by Gabriela Lena Frank Plath Songs by Shawn Kirchner A Map of Los Angeles by David O SANG by Eve Beglarian Messages and Brief Eternity by Bobby McFerrin and Roger Treece, lyrics by Don Rosler Broken Charms by Donald Crockett Rezos (Prayers) by Tania León Mother's Lament by Sharon Farber The Salvage Men by Jeff Beal Mangá Pakalagián (Ceremonies) by Nilo Alcala Ave Maria/Scarborough Fair by Paul Chihara In the Desert With You by Moira Smiley He led the U.S. premiere of Two Songs to Poems of Ann Jäderlund by Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Master Chorale, along with other U.S. premieres of works by composers James MacMillan, Tarik O'Regan, Sofia Gubaidulina and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Beyond his work with the Master Chorale, he has also championed new music. He conducted the world premiere of John Adams opera Girls of the Golden West and Adams' opera/theatre piece, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, directed by Peter Sellars. He and pianist Gloria Cheng premiered Hallelujah Junction, a piano-duo piece written for them by John Adams. In February 2007, he conducted the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's opera, The Grapes of Wrath with Minnesota Opera, along with following performances with Utah Opera. In 2010, Gershon led the world premiere performances of Il Postino by Daniel Catán, featuring Plácido Domingo as the poet Pablo Neruda.