LYNDON-GEE, CHRISTOPHER Christopher Lyndon-Gee was nominated for Grammys in 1998 for Best Orchestral Performance for the groundbreaking complete works of Igor Markevitch (Marco Polo), in 2003 for the world première recording of George Rochberg’s Symphony No. 5 on Naxos American Classics, and again in 2007 for Hans Werner Henze’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 3, with Peter Sheppard Skærved. In 2001-2002 recordings for Naxos of Arcana and other works by Varèse, with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra received acclaimed notices worldwide, while The Gramophone, Fanfare, Classics Today and Penguin Guide to Compact Discs have all recognised his work, the last with numerous Rosettes and a Key Recordings listing. Australian critics’ organizations named him Artist of the Year and Best Opera Conductor, the latter for his conducting of the world première of Larry Sitsky’s The Golem at Sydney Opera House.
Also a widely performed composer, Lyndon-Gee was awarded a prestigious composition prize by the Onassis Foundation, Athens, in 2001. He has won the Adolf Spivakovsky Prize, the Sounds Australian Award (three times), and two MacDowell Fellowships.
He is currently working on major orchestral works including The Auschwitz Poems, Socrates’ Death (intended for performance at Canterbury Cathedral, in his native England), and a second commission for the German conductor Eckart Schloifer, … und unter den Blättern saß Er, weinend. During 2003 his setting of an ancient Greek Ode under the title The Temple of Athena Pronaea had its première in New York. In the same week, On the Theory of Cosmic Strings received its première by Peter Sheppard Skærved at the Odense Festival, Denmark, and has since been performed over fifty times. Frammento del Dante, a setting of lines from the Paradiso, was commissioned by the Echo Klassiek Preis-winning German ensemble SingerPur, and had its première in Florence in 2006. Lyndon-Gee is now working on a further work for SingerPur, Lieder des Morgensterns.
In 2004 he co-ordinated eight composers (including himself) to set the work of the American poet laureate William Meredith in honour of Meredith’s 85th birthday, for a “Songbook” recital that toured worldwide in more than 22 performances. A 25th Anniversary Presteigne Festival Commission, Over Litton, after a poem of Edward Storey, had its première in 2007.
Lyndon-Gee studied under Arthur Hutchings and Rudolf Schwartz in Great Britain, Franco Ferrara and Goffredo Petrassi in Italy, and Igor Markevitch at Monte Carlo. Hearing him conduct a student concert in Rome, Leonard Bernstein invited him to Tanglewood, where he met Bruno Maderna, becoming the latter’s assistant in Milan. Erich Leinsdorf and Maurice Abravanel were also influential on his work. He enjoyed a busy early career as pianist, specialising in contemporary repertoire; over 200 new works were written for him, by composers such as Oliver Knussen, Jonathan Lloyd, Nicola LeFanu, David Bedford, Mauro Cardi, Ada Gentile, Silvano Bussotti and many more. Since 2005, he has conducted regularly at the prestigious Warsaw Autumn Festival; at the 2007 Jubilee Fiftieth Anniversary Festival, he conducted four world premières by distinguished Polish, Lithuanian and Slovakian composers; in late 2006 he led the closing concert of the eight-day Festival entirely devoted to the works of leading Polish composer Paweł Szymaski. As Music Director of the Adelphi Symphony based on Long Island, New York, he has gathered an orchestra of predominantly Russian and Ukrainian expatriate musicians, in programmes featuring music of Peteris Vasks, Louis Andriessen, Alfred Schnittke, Joanne Metcalf, Sidney Boquiren, Arvo Pärt and rare American performances of works such as Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 ‘Babi Yar’, Messiaen’s Trois Petites Liturgies, Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, as well as many new works. He serves also as Chair of the Music Department at New York’s Adelphi University. His hectic freelance career includes regular visits to orchestras in Germany, Poland, Italy, England, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Russia and several other countries. | 
