36 2014 Program Notes, Book 7
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
ANDREW GRAMS
, newly appointed Music Director of the
Elgin Symphony Orchestra of Illinois, has appeared with
many of the great orchestras of the world, including those
of Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, Toronto, Paris,
London, Sydney, and Rome. Mr. Grams was a protégé of
Franz Welser-Möst and served as Assistant Conductor of the
Cleveland Orchestra from 2004 to 2007. In 2002, Mr. Grams
was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Reading Symphony
Orchestra and returned to conduct that orchestra again in
2005. He was selected to spend the summer of 2003 studying
with David Zinman, Murry Sidlin and Michael Stern at the American Academy of
Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, and returned to that program in 2004. As a
violinist, Mr. Grams was a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra at Lincoln
Center and has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St.
Luke’s, Brooklyn Philharmonic and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. A Maryland
native, Andrew Grams began conducting at the age of seventeen, when he directed
the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. He
received a bachelor’s degree in violin from the Juilliard School, and was awarded a
conducting degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he worked with Otto-
Werner Mueller.
DAMON GUPTON
, a native of Detroit and graduate in music
education of the University of Michigan, held the post of
Assistant Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, served as
American Conducting Fellow of the Houston Symphony, and
led the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra on a national tour that
culminated in performances at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Gupton
won the Third International Eduardo Mata Conducting
Competition in Mexico City, studied conducting with David
Zinman and Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music Festival and
with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in
Washington, D.C., and has appeared with the orchestras of Cleveland, Washington,
D.C., Detroit, Baltimore, San Diego, San Antonio, Monte Carlo, Tokyo and Mexico
City. An accomplished actor, Mr. Gupton graduated from the Drama Division of the
Juilliard School in New York, and has appeared in roles on television, film and stage,
including the Broadway production of
Clybourne Park
, Aaron Sorkin’s
The Newsroom
and
Law and Order
. On film, he appeared in
Unfaithful
,
The Last Airbender
, and
This
is Forty.
Damon Gupton’s awards include the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize and
Aspen Conducting Prize. He is the inaugural recipient of the Emerging Artist Award
from the University of Michigan School of Music and Alumni Society.
