Biography
James Gaffigan
James Gaffigan was appointed to the position of Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony in September 2006. In that role, he leads the orchestra in concerts throughout the season, including subscription weeks, serves as the Artistic Director of the Summer in the City series and assists Michael Tilson Thomas during his Davies Symphony Hall conducting weeks, on tour and with recording and multi-media projects. From 2003 to 2006, Mr. Gaffigan was assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, where his responsibilities included assisting Music Director Franz Welser-Moest throughout the season, conducting subscription concerts at Severance Hall and the Blossom Music Festival and serving as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.
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. He graduated from Boston's New England Conservatory of Music where he majored in bassoon performance and began his conducting studies with Frank Battisti. In May 2003 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 made his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival as part of the collaboration between The Cleveland Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival and School. The following summer, he was selected as one of two conducting fellows to study at the Tanglewood Music Center. He has subsequently covered concerts for and been coached by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, Andre Previn, Hans Graf, Robert Spano and Jorma Panula.
In September 2004, James Gaffigan was a first prize winner at the Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt, Germany and during the 2005/06 season made his debut with the Frankfurt Gesellschaft Museum Orchestra as a part of his award. During the 2006/07 season, he made his debuts with the Deutsche Symphony Orchestra in Berlin and the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig and on a tour to Spain and returned to work with the Tonhalle Orchestra and the Frankfurt Gesellschaft Museum Orchestra.
In the United States, Mr. Gaffigan has guest conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the New World, Indianapolis, Columbus, Kansas City and Fort Worth symphonies and a New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert. He has led concerts with many of the country's leading student training orchestras including the orchestras at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin School of Music, Carnegie-Mellon University, Kent/Blossom Festival and the Boston University/Tanglewood Institute and is also the Music Director of CityMusic Cleveland, a chamber orchestra in Cleveland, which presents free concerts throughout the city.
Highlights of Mr. Gaffigan's 2007/08 season in North America include debuts with the Toronto, Houston, Utah, Charlotte and San Antonio symphonies, while in Europe, he makes first appearances with the Rotterdam and Royal Liverpool Philharmonics, Bournemouth Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium, "Guiseppe Verdi" Symphony Orchestra of Milan and the Orchestra of Italian Switzerland in Lugano.
Increasingly active as an opera conductor, James Gaffigan led his first opera production in 2003, conducting Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at the Shepherd School of Music. He made his professional opera debut at the Zurich Opera in June 2005 conducting La Boheme and returned to Zurich for seven revival performances of the same production in May 2006. Mr. Gaffigan has also conducted student productions of Britten's Turn of the Screw and Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and covered productions or concert performances of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Strauss' Elektra, and Verdi's Don Carlo in Cleveland; Mozart's Magic Flute at Aspen; and Britten's Rape of Lucretia in Boston.