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Grant Gershon (born November 10, 1960) is an American conductor and pianist. He is Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Resident Conductor of the Los Angeles Opera, member of the Board of Councillors for the USC Thornton School of Music and a member of the Chorus America Board of Directors.
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.
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.
He has also 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 100 performances at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and has led the chorus in a number of world premieres, including:
You Are (Variations) by Steve Reich
Requiem by Christopher Rouse
The City of Dis by Louis Andriessen
"Los cantores de las montañas" 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
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/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.
On May 21, 2007, the Los Angeles Opera and Los Angeles Master Chorale issued a joint press release. In it, they announced that Gershon would be extending his contract with the Master Chorale through the 2010/2011 season, and that he was being named Associate Conductor/Chorus Master of Los Angeles Opera. In the press release, Plácido Domingo called Gershon, "an exceptional musician whose broad musical interests, technical mastery and impressive experience will be a huge asset to LA Opera." In this position at LA Opera Gershon has conducted a run of 8 performances of La traviata, a set of performances of Handel's "L'allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato" in Mark Morris's production, and the previously cited Il Postino.
Gershon has appeared as guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, 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 chamber orchestra Avanti!, among others. He has led performances at many of the world's most prestigious festivals, including the Ravinia, Edinburgh, Vienna, Aspen, Ojai and Helsinki festivals as well as the Roma-Europa Festival and the Festival Otonno in Madrid.
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