Jed Gaylin
Music Director
“Generous” is the word listeners and performers use time and again to describe conductor Jed Gaylin’s approach to the orchestra, the score, and the audience. His joyful abandon and probing intellect join together in powerful programs, compelling interpretations, and evenings that are fresh and exuberant. George Szell said, “In music one must think with the heart and feel with the mind,” a maxim Jed Gaylin embodies abundantly and passionately.
Orchestra members throughout the world, soloists, and opera singers often recount how Jed Gaylin’s rehearsals and performances elicit their very best, not only individually but collectively. He seeks connections not only within a piece, but also between seemingly disparate and wide-ranging works to sculpt a concert of surprising, captivating juxtapositions. His dedication to exploring the music’s fullest potential in a collaborative spirit reaches beyond the stage to draw the audience into the creative act. Listeners feel far more than just welcomed by words from the podium—they feel engaged as participants in a wordless musical conversation that is spontaneous, big-hearted, and eloquent.
As Music Director, Jed Gaylin leads the Bay Atlantic Symphony, Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, and Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra with the same creative depth and an open spirit that he brings to the podium. The Bay Atlantic Symphony is now not only consistently praised for its astonishing level of artistry and precision, it is also viewed throughout New Jersey as a model for how professional orchestras can become a vital focus and source of identity in their communities. As a sought-after creative partner throughout the region, the Bay Atlantic Symphony has forged residencies with three area colleges, numerous towns, music festivals such as Cape May, and even casinos. Atlantic City’s Borgata hosts the Symphony for an all-classical summer series, begun in 2013. In 2012, Jed Gaylin was named Artist in Residence at Stockton Univeristy. This position is a part of an innovative model in which Bay Atlantic Symphony is integrated into the music curriculum. Symphonic rehearsals and presentations have become focal points for coursework and seminars. Also in 2012, he was named Music Director of the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
Mr. Gaylin makes his home in Baltimore where he lives with his wife, poet and essayist Lia Purpura, and their son. He has been Music Director of Hopkins Symphony since 1993, during which the orchestra has grown in size, prominence, and artistry into one of the country’s most accomplished university orchestras. The high standards of the orchestra and Jed Gaylin’s belief in art’s ability to knit together and ignite new energy in our communities have resulted in collaborations with arts groups throughout the city, as well as with other non-profit and civic organizations. Also in Baltimore, Jed Gaylin was a regular conductor of Opera Vivente, where his interpretations of Mozart, Verdi, Donizetti, and Jonathan Dove have been praised consistently for their nuance and power.
Mr. Gaylin served as Director of Orchestras of the Cervera International Music Festival and Summer Course (Spain). He has been Principal Guest Conductor of the National Film and Radio Philharmonic (Beijing, China) as well as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Sibiu State Philharmonic (Romania). Mr Gaylin has led numerous orchestras, including the Saint Petersburg State Symphony, Shanghai Conservatory Orchestra, Xinjiang Philharmonic, Bucharest Radio Orchestra, Academia del Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona, Spain), Eastman School of Music Broadband Ensemble, Lodz Philharmonic and Pomorska Philharmonic (Poland), Gnessin Institute Orchestra and Moscow Chamber Symphony (Russia), Orquesta Sinfonica de Guanajuato (Mexico), Orvieto Festival Orchestra (Italy), Naples Philharmonic (Florida), Symphony New Hampshire, and Wheeling Symphony (West Virginia). He has taught master classes and lectured throughout the world including at the Shanghai Conservatory, the Peabody Conservatory, and Eastman School of Music.
Among Jed Gaylin’s television and radio broadcasts have been National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition airing of the Bay-Atlantic Symphony to more than four million listeners, Voice of America presentations throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as Bucharest Radio Orchestra, and the National Radio and Film Philharmonic in Beijing. Mr. Gaylin and the Bay-Atlantic Symphony broadcasted a full-length concert performed at the Cape May Music Festival on WWFM in New Jersey and have been aired repeatedly on WYPR in Baltimore.
Such soloists as Hilary Hahn, Yuja Wang, Eugenia Zukerman, Shai Wosner, and Stefan Jackiw have performed with Jed Gaylin leading the Bay Atlantic and Hopkins Symphonies. Composers he has commissioned include Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Lee Pui Ming, James Grant, Russell Steinberg, and James Lee. He recorded She Comes to Shore—concerto for improvised piano and orchestra, by pianist/composer Lee Pui Ming (Naxos/Innova). The recording features the Bay Atlantic Symphony, with the composer at the piano. He also conducted for a two-album CD played by the Xinjiang Philharmonic in Northwest China.
Mr. Gaylin earned both a Bachelor of Music in piano and a Master of Music in conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting at the Peabody Conservatory. He attended the Aspen Music Festival as a Conducting Fellow. Among other honors, he has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and the Presser Music Award. His conducting teachers have included Frederik Prausnitz, Leonard Slatkin, Jahja Ling, Murry Sidlin, Paul Vermel, and Michel Singher, and, for piano, Lydia Frumkin.
Find out more about Jed Gaylin at jedgaylin.com.
