Biography
James Gaffigan
Hailed for the natural ease of his conducting and the compelling insight of his musicianship, James Gaffigan continues to attract international attention and is considered by many to be the most outstanding young American conductor working today. In January 2010, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Both positions begin in summer 2011.
In the United States, Mr. Gaffigan has guest conducted the Philadelphia, Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras, the Chicago, Toronto, St. Louis, Detroit, Houston, National, Dallas, Seattle, New World and Baltimore symphonies and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra among others. During the 2010/11 season, he returns to the Cincinnati and Indianapolis symphonies and debuts with the orchestras of Vancouver and Milwaukee.
James Gaffigan's international career was launched when he was named a first prize winner at the 2004 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt, Germany. Since then he has worked with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Tonhalle Orchestra and the Camerata Salzburg among others. During the 2010/11 season, he returns to the Munich and Rotterdam Philharmonics, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Bournemouth Symphony, the Leipzig and Stuttgart Radio Orchestras and make debuts with the Dresden Staatskappelle, Sydney Symphony and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
James Gaffigan made his professional opera debut at the Zurich Opera in June 2005 conducting La Boheme. In the summer of 2009 he conducted performances of Don Giovanni at the Aspen Music Festival and during the fall of 2009 he led a production of Falstaff for Glyndebourne on Tour. He returned to Glyndebourne in the summer of 2010 to share a production of Cosi fan tutti with Sir Charles Mackerras as well as to Aspen to lead performances of Marriage of Figaro. He leads performances of Marriage of Figaro at the Houston Grand Opera in spring 2011 and makes his debut at the Vienna State Opera later that year conducting La Boheme.
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 recently completed a three year tenure as Associate Conductor with the San Francisco Symphony where he assisted Michael Tilson Thomas, led subscription concerts 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 resides in Lucerne with his wife, the writer Lee Taylor Gaffigan.