BEN-DOR, GISELE A formidable and incandescent presence on the podium, conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor has won high critical acclaim
for her appearances as guest conductor with major orchestras and opera houses throughout the world and as Music
Director of the Santa Barbara (CA) Symphony, of which she became Conductor Laureate in 2006. Although she is a
master conductor of the established classics, as a Uruguayan by birth and upbringing she is a particularly persuasive
champion of Latin American music, notably the works of Ginastera, Revueltas, Piazzolla, and Luis Bacalov, and is
widely regarded as one of the world’s most dedicated and idiomatic exponents of this repertoire on account of her
many recordings and festivals. In demand internationally, Gisèle Ben-Dor has worked with the Rotterdam
Philharmonic, Bern Symphony, Brabant Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Orchestre de Cannes as well as others in
France, Israel and the United States. She has led the New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, London
Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, BBC NOW, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops, New World
Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Minnesota
Orchestra and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande among many others in the United States, Europe, Australia, and
Latin America. A former associate conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Gisèle Ben-Dor returned to the
Philharmonic in 1999 to substitute for Daniele Gatti in a programme of Mahler and Beethoven, without a rehearsal
or scores (a feat which she had accomplished earlier by stepping in at the last minute for Kurt Masur). On other
occasions she has appeared with the Philharmonic in New York’s Central Park before an estimated audience of
100,000. Some of her major performances of the music of Ginastera have included a new production and European
première of Ginastera’s last opera, Beatrix Cenci at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, to unanimous critical acclaim and
Ginastera’s Turbae ad Passionem Gregorianam, in Madrid, also a European première. In addition to a recording
with the Santa Barbara Symphony of vocal music by Ginastera, featuring Placido Domingo, Ana Maria Martinez
and Virginia Tola in excerpts from Ginastera’s first opera Don Rodrigo, her earlier recordings include Ginastera’s complete ballets Estancia and Panambi (Naxos 8.557582), The Soul of Tango (world premières by Piazzolla and Bacalov, Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes, and the world première of both versions of the Glosses on Themes of Pablo Casals. Gisèle Ben-Dor also holds the position of Conductor Emerita of the Boston Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra,
a post to which she was elected exclusively by the musicians. Her talent was also recognised by Leonard Bernstein,
with whom she shared the stage at Tanglewood and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. A winner of the Bártok
Prize of Hungarian Television, she has toured extensively in Eastern Europe. She made her conducting début with
the Israel Philharmonic in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, televised by the BBC throughout Europe. Born and
raised in Uruguay of Polish parents, she studied at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv and the Yale School of
Music, settling in the United States.
For more information, please visit http://www.giseleben-dor.com.
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