GSO Conductor

Music director and conductor of the Greenwich Symphony since 1975, David Gilbert is acclaimed for his dynamic performances with orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, and the Far East. Born in Pennsylvania to a family of musicians, he earned Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the Eastman School of Music and won first prize in the 1970 Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition. Assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 1970 to 1979, and principal conductor of the American Ballet Theatre from 1971 to 1975, he was chief assistant to Pierre Boulez at the 1976 Bayreuth Festival. At China’s invitation, he served as principal guest conductor of the Beijing Philharmonic (1980-82). The first American musician to hold a position of national prominence in China, Mr. Gilbert was instrumental in rebuilding that nation’s major symphony orchestra.

Mr. Gilbert’s guest conducting has included the orchestras of Nashville, New Jersey, Rochester, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Milan’s RAI Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic. He spent seven summers as music director of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta and nine years as guest conductor at the Manchester, VT, Festival. For three summers he has conducted a series of concerts at the International Piano Festival in Tenerife, Canary Islands.

David Gilbert is a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music where he has conducted both symphony and opera, including several important New York premieres. In 1997, he conducted Dominick Argento’s “Postcard from Morocco,” and in 2004, the U.S. Premiere of Martinu’s “Mirandolina.” CDs of Ned Rorem’s “Miss Julie,” Benjamin Britten’s “Albert Herring,” William Mayer’s “A Death in the Family,” and Scott Eyerly’s “The House of the Seven Gables” with the MSM Opera Department, David Gilbert conducting, have been released.

Mr. Gilbert is music director of the Bergen (NJ) Philharmonic and the Senior Concert Orchestra of New York. His recent compositions include his “Concerto for Trombone, Brass, and Orchestra,” premiered by the Greenwich Symphony in 2000, and “Phoenix Madrigal” for flute and strings, at the Manchester Festival in 2000. He resides in Nutley, New Jersey, with his wife, Nonie and their children, Halley, Mara and Karl.