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Biography
 Gisèle
Ben-Dor was born Giséle Buka in Montevideo, Uruguay,
of Polish parents who emigrated shortly before World
War II. She began piano studies at the age of four with
Gloria Rodriguez and Santiago Baranda Reyes at the J.S.
Bach Conservatory, later studying harmony and counterpoint
with Yolanda Rizzardini. In addition to the thorough
training in the classical repertoire, her early upbringing
was subject to a variety of cultural influences, resulting
in her playing self-taught guitar, Paraguayan harp,
recorder and Italian accordion, as well as the knowledge
of six languages - Spanish, English, Hebrew, French,
Italian and German. She began to conduct at the age
of twelve, becoming the official music director of her
school at the age of fourteen, where her duties involved
preparing and leading all choirs and instrumental ensembles
in public performance. One of the highlights of her
musical childhood as a conductor was winning two first
prizes for her compositions and conducting in a competition
of music for Jerusalem, sponsored by the Mayor of the
city, Teddi Kollek.
In 1973, while still a teenager, political upheavals
in her native country prompted her entire family to
leave for Israel. There she continued her piano studies
with Enrique Barenboim, and composition with Arthur
Gelbrun, later joining the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel-Aviv
University, where she studied orchestral conducting
with S. Ronley Riklis and choral conducting with Avner
Itai, as well as additional studies with Mendi Rodan
in Jerusalem, under scholarships from the America-Israel
Cultural Foundation. Further private studies also included
the violin, cello and clarinet, under special scholarship.
She received an Artist diploma in just one year, after
a highly successful performance of Mozart's opera The
Marriage of Figaro.
In 1980, after spending the summer at the Accademia
Chigiana in Siena, Italy, studying with Franco Ferrara,
Giséle Ben-Dor moved to the US to study at the Yale
School of Music, turning down a full scholarship offer
to study at the Hochschule fur Music in Berlin. At Yale,
she was awarded the Frances Wickes scholarship for outstanding
students. She received her Master's degree in 1982.
Her stunning conducting debut occurred immediately upon
graduation from Yale, with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
in Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. The performance,
which signified her first encounter with a major orchestra,
was supervised by Zubin Mehta and taped by the BBC of
London for a special Television series to be broadcast
throughout Europe. The resounding critical success was
confirmed by an immediate re-engagement with the Philharmonic,
as well as engagements with other Israeli orchestras
which she now conducts regularly.
A wide variety of conducting activities between 1983
and 1987 combined her American conducting debut with
the Minnesota Orchestra to work at prestigious summer
festivals, international conducting competitions, the
music directorship of the Norwalk Youth Symphony (Connecticut)
and raising her first child, born two weeks after her
debut in Israel.
She first came to the attention of American audiences
in 1984, as a Conducting Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Institute, where she worked with Michael Tilson Thomas,
Leonard Slatkin, Stanislaw Skrowaszewsky, and Christoph
Eschenbach, leading various performances at the Hollywood
Bowl to critical acclaim. Most significant was her work
at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1985, where she was
also a Fellow Conductor, working with Leonard Bernstein,
Kurt Masur and Seiji Ozawa. She came to the attention
of Leonard Bernstein with whom she worked closely, sharing
a special concert celebrating Aaron Copland's 85th birthday.
She received the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship and was
subsequently invited by Maestro Bernstein to conduct
the Bavarian Radio Orchestra during the inauguration
of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival.
Other significant activities that year included winning
the 1986 Bartók Prize of the Hungarian Television International
Conductors' Competition, leading the Hungarian National
Symphony and the Budapest Philharmonic, as well as at
the Bartók Festival. As a result, she guest-conducted
widely in Eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia,
Bulgaria, and other Hungarian orchestras). She made
her American debut with a major orchestra leading the
Minnesota Orchestra at the Summerfest Festival in 1986,
and she also directed the first International Festival
of Women in Music realized in Israel with the Israel
Sinfonietta.
In 1987 she became the Assistant Conductor of the Louisville
Orchestra (Kentucky). Among the highlights of her season
there were various performances at the acclaimed first
Soundcelebration Festival of contemporary music.
She was soon engaged by the Houston Symphony, serving
as Resident Conductor until 1991. She led over a hundred
performances with the orchestra, including its special
performance at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC, during
the 1989 Presidential Inauguration; at the Houston Mostly
Mozart Festival, the Houston International Festival
and the new Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands. Her
critically acclaimed Classical Season debut, with guest
violinist Shlomo Mintz, featured also the first performance
of Copland's Third Symphony in twenty years. In addition,
during her tenure with the Houston Symphony, she also
served as music director of the Houston Youth Symphony,
as well as acting director of the Shepherd School of
Music orchestra at Rice University.
Named by Musical America as one of the prominent
"Young Artists of the Year" in 1990, she made her Carnegie
Hall debut in 1991 during the hall's 100th anniversary
celebrations, in a special tribute to Italy and the
Americas. In one season she was named Music Director
of both the Boston Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and the
Annapolis Symphony with whom her dramatic artistic impact
to date has gathered the highest critical acclaim.
A very active guest-conducting schedule in the past
few seasons has included orchestras across the United
States, throughout Europe and Israel. In recent seasons
she has guest-conducted the New York Philharmonic, the
Boston Pops, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Paul
Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Symphonies
of Phoenix, Edmonton (Canada), Toledo, Colorado Springs,
Chautauqua, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Dayton
Philharmonic, Women's Philharmonic (San Francisco),
Tanglewood Young Artists Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra,
the Pacific Symphony and many others in the US. She
has championed the music of American composers, commissioning
and performing many world premieres of their works,
as well as works by Latin American composers.
Abroad she has recently led the London Symphony, the
English Chamber Orchestra, the Potsdam Festival Orchestra
(Berlin), the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra
(Madrid), the Ulster Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic,
the Flemish Chamber Orchestra, Het Gelders Orkest (Holland),
the Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Israel
Chamber Orchestra and Israel Sinfonietta, and the Queensland
Philharmonic and Queensland Symphony in Australia. She
has also guest-conducted all the orchestras in her native
Uruguay as well as the Orquestra del Teatro Nacional
in Brazil.
Artists with whom she was shared the stage include
Gil Shaham, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Joshua Bell, Shlomo
Mintz, Maria Joao Pires, Frederika von Stade, Bella
Davidovich, Leon Fleisher, and the Beaux Arts Trio.
In December 1993, she made an impressive New York Philharmonic
debut, without rehearsal or scores, replacing maestro
Kurt Masur at the last minute. She was subsequently
invited to lead the New York Philharmonic in a series
of concerts in the summer. Her engagements in following
seasons have included recordings with the London Symphony,
a debut at the Potsdam Festival in Berlin, the Music
Academy of the West, return engagements with the Tanglewood
Young Artists Orchestra, other orchestras in Israel,
London and in the U.S., a return engagement with the
New York Philharmonic (British Festival), and concerts
in Cincinnati and Philadelphia.
Appointed Music Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony,
by unanimous request of the audiences, musicians, critics,
and board, she assumed her responsibilities in the Fall
of 1994; her contract has now been extended beyond the
year 2000. She continued to serve as Music Director
of the Boston Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra to which she
was appointed in 1991 until 1999, when she was named
Conductor Emerita. In May 1997, she stepped down as
Music Director of the Annapolis Symphony after serving
six years.
High critical acclaim, both in the United States and
abroad, greeted her CD of music by Alberto Ginastera
with the London Symphony Orchestra released last fall
by Koch International and her recording of music by
Bela Bartok with the Sofia Soloists for Centaur Records.
She has also recorded music of American composer Ezra
Sims with the Boston Pro Arte Chamber Orchstra for Orchestra.
A recording of music by American composers John Adams
and David Ott with the London Symphony for Koch International
is scheduled for release in the coming months. Future
releases include more music of Alberto Ginastera and
music of Silvestre Revueltas, both with the London Symphony
and the Santa Barbara Symphony, as well as the English
Chamber Orchestra. She recently signed a multiple CD
contract with BMG in London, with releases soon expected
of Latin American composers.
A permanent resident of the United States, Gisèle Ben-Dor
makes her home on the East Coast, together with her
husband Eli Ben-Dor, an engineer, and their two young
sons, Roy and Gabriel.
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