Gabriel Gordon - AYS Conductor

The Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Gabriel Gordon has been chosen to serve as the Conductor of the Albuquerque Youth Symphony. Mr. Gordon succeeds Amir Kats, who led the AYS for the past five seasons. Mr. Gordon was chosen from a field of twenty-eight applicants, and auditioned for a summer orchestra of Albuquerque Youth Symphony members and alumni.

Gabriel Gordon is a graduate of the Performing Arts School in New York City. He has served as Music Director of the Greater Newark Youth Orchestra, The New Jersey State Youth Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra at Tower Hill. As one of the founding members of the DaPonte String Quartet, he spent ten years honing his musical craft in the art of Chamber Music. "I am a much better conductor for having spent those years in a string quartet. Rather than just beating time and giving orders, I feel a conductor is much more like a chamber music partner with the orchestra. This creates an amazing connection between the conductor and the players, says Gordon. New Jersey's Star Ledger confirms this by writing, "Mr. Gordon has a wonderful rapport with his musicians.

Originally from New York City, Gabriel Gordon made his professional conducting debut with the Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea in 1998, and soon formed the Chamber Orchestra at Tower Hill with players from the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony. He recently was selected as a member of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and is a finalist for the concertmaster position with the Santa Fe Symphony. He has studied with some of the great luminaries of conducting including Kenneth Kiesler, Gustav Meier, Harold Farberman, David Gilbert, and Jonathan Strasser.