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James Gaffigan is considered by many to be the most outstanding young American conductor of his generation. At the beginning of the 2011/12 season, he commences his two appointments as Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. As a guest conductor, he is in high demand working at the highest level with leading orchestras and opera houses throughout the United States and in Europe. In recent seasons, James Gaffigan’s guest engagements have included the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore and National Symphony Orchestras and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Further afield, he has worked with the Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle, Bournemouth Symphony, Iceland Symphony, Camerata Salzburg, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Leipzig and Stuttgart Radio Orchestras, Gürzenich Orchestra (Cologne), Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Sao Paolo Symphony and Qatar Philharmonic among others. This season he will make his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic (Dvorak Prague Festival), Bucharest Festival, Atlanta Symphony, Sydney Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic and

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James Gaffigan is considered by many to be the most outstanding young American conductor of his generation. At the beginning of the 2011/12 season, he commences his two appointments as Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a guest conductor, he is in high demand working at the highest level with leading orchestras and opera houses throughout the United States and in Europe. In recent seasons, James Gaffigan’s guest engagements have included the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore and National Symphony Orchestras and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Further afield, he has worked with the Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle, Bournemouth Symphony, Iceland Symphony, Camerata Salzburg, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Leipzig and Stuttgart Radio Orchestras, Gürzenich Orchestra (Cologne), Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Sao Paolo Symphony and Qatar Philharmonic among others.

This season he will make his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic (Dvorak Prague Festival), Bucharest Festival, Atlanta Symphony, Sydney Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic and enjoys regular return visits to many orchestras in the States and in Europe.

As an opera conductor, James Gaffigan conducts a production of La Cenerentola at Glyndebourne Festival this season as well as La Bohème at the Wiener StaatsOper. James has previously conducted Don Giovanni at the Aspen Music Festival and also led a production of Falstaff for Glyndebourne-on-Tour in 2009. He returned in 2010 to the Glyndebourne Festival to share a production of Cosi fan tutte with Sir Charles Mackerras, to Aspen to lead performances of The Marriage of Figaro and conducted The Marriage of Figaro at Houston Opera.

Born in New York City in 1979, Mr. Gaffigan studied at the LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Juilliard School Preparatory Division. A graduate of New England Conservatory of Music, he earned his Masters of Music in conducting at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, where he worked with Larry Rachleff. In the summer of 2000, Mr. Gaffigan was one of eight young conductors chosen by David Zinman to participate as an Academy Conductor in the inaugural year of the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen. Two years later he received the Academy's first Robert Harth Conducting Award and the following summer he was selected as one of two conducting fellows to study at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Mr. Gaffigan was the Associate Conductor with the San Francisco Symphony assisting Michael Tilson Thomas and was Artistic Director of the orchestra's Summer in the City festival. Prior to that appointment, he was the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra where he worked under Music Director Franz Welser-Moest from 2003 through 2006. James Gaffigan's international career was launched when he was named a first prize winner at the 2004 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition. James Gaffigan lives in Lucerne with his wife, the writer Lee Taylor Gaffigan, and their daughter Sofia.

 

Season 2011/2012

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Reviews

"Gaffigan is one of those rare conductors ... who not only shows you how a piece should sound, but what it means."

Toronto Globe and Mail

"If the Dallas Symphony Orchestra ever gets around to naming another principal guest conductor, James Gaffigan would be worth considering. As in his January 2010 debut with the DSO, the young American demonstrated fastidious command of the orchestra, but also far rarer virtues of musical shape and expressivity."

The Dallas Morning News

"There is little doubt that James Gaffigan is . . . well on his way to being one of the greats of his generation."

TheatreJones

"Gaffigan and the ensemble made the piece interesting and satisfying from front to finish, with articulate phrasings and a constant, forward-leaning energy."

The Journal Sentinel

"His conducting style is direct and communicative. He likes to whip up excitement, and he does it well."

The Los Angeles Times

"James Gaffigan assumed his new post as Chief Conductor of the LSO and opened with a brilliant performance of a world premiere. The American conductor, who was born in 1979, will be conducting two-thirds of the concerts in the next six years. If you’re going to do something at all, then you might as well do it properly. With that in mind, James Gaffigan is the best possible person lead the orchestra in this new direction. He seems to understand the young orchestra amazingly well. Brahms’ Second Symphony sounded very convincing. The tone was clear and effortless, gently sung and animated, displaying a subtle rubato and also conveying bite in the forte sections. In addition, the seldom played violin concerto from Brahms’ contemporary, Karl Goldmark, not only complemented the program perfectly, but was also a great example of the way in which programs are made in Lucerne. "

Neue Burcher Beitung

"...There is an evident youthful vigor here, starting with James Gaffigan's consistently inspired conducting. From the first notes of the beloved overture, however, it was evident that he wasn't trying to make the orchestra romantic or heavy handed. He allowed us to hear each line in Mozart's score as if it were a perfectly polished piece of silver in a well-organized place setting..."

houston.culturemap.com

"...Maestro Gaffigan was off to the races, and conducted this opera with the excitement and fervor as if it were an animated 30 minute symphony, except that it was 3 hours and 15 minutes! He is obviously a talented force to be reckoned with, and is very enjoyable to watch, and listen to..."

www.examiner.com

"Gaffigan established many facets of the works in the large-scale first movement, the Mozart-like minuet, and the impulsive finale and in doing so, earned himself an extremely warm applause… Successful debut!"

http://www.musik-in-dresden.de

"Would it be damning with too much faint praise to say that James Gaffigan is the sort of maestro you could take home to meet your mum? Impressive but self-effacing, confident but compliant, chances are that the affable American wouldn’t just praise the supper and ask for seconds, but volunteer to do the washing up as well. "

The Times