Gary Berkson - Conductor
Gary Berkson has been Resident Conductor of the Royal Swedish Ballet and Royal Swedish Opera for twelve years as well as Principal Conductor of the Gothenburg opera house “Stora Teatern” where he has also served as Artistic Adviser. More recently he concluded ten years as Head of the Opera Division at the Royal Swedish Opera.
Gary Berkson is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He is best known for his work as a conductor in the theatre, appearing with companies like the Dutch National Ballet, the Nederlands Dans Theater I & II, Hamburg Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Finnish National Ballet and in the operatic field with the Greater Miami Opera, Chattanooga Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Malmö Opera och Musikteater and at international music festivals in the United States, Germany, Bulgaria and Norway conducting operas and ballets ranging from the traditional to the contemporary as well as musicals and operettas. He has conducted the world premières of works by Per Nørgaard, Hans Gefors, Arne Mellnäs, Thomas Jennefelt, Lars Johan Werle, Diego Dall’Osto, Ian McQueen, as well as the Bulgarian première of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande and the Swedish premières of Leonard Bernstein's Candide (Opera House Version) and Peter Maxwell Davies' Taverner. He has worked closely with such choreographers as Jiri Kylian, Glenn Tetley, Birgit Cullberg, Patrice Bart, Hans van Manen, John Neumeier, Ted Brandsen, Christopher Hampson, Wayne Eagling, Jacopo Godani and Krzysztof Pastor as well as conducting ballets from the repertoire of George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Frederick Ashton, Maurice Béjart, Jerome Robbins, Nils Christie, José Limón, William Forsythe amongst many others.
Gary Berkson is no stranger to symphony orchestras. He has appeared with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Swedish Court Orchestra, Sophia Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Holland Symfonia, Helsingborg Symphony and Malmö Symphony Orchestra and orchestras he has conducted in North America have included the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, Evansville Philharmonic, Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra and the San Antonio Symphony.
Mr. Berkson has had the honor of conducting for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of Great Britain, King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia of Sweden, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands as well as the Presidents and Prime Ministers of many European countries.
September 2006