Bio:
Dr. Gerald Gray performs throughout the United States primarily in the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Recent highlights include the role of "Tempo" in Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra of Los Angeles, one-voice-per-part performances of Bach’s sacred cantatas with the American Bach Soloists of San Francisco which received critical acclaim, and the role of "Narrator" in Monteverdi’s Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda with the Bach and Beyond Frestival in Fredonia, New York. Dr. Gray returned to Musica Angelica in October to perform a concert of Bach’s Sacred Cantatas and returned to the American Bach Soloists in May for a series of performances of the St. Matthew Passion. Dr. Gray returned to the Bach and Beyond Festival to perform Bach’s solo tenor cantata Ich armer Mensch, Ich Sünden kneckt and Telemann’s solo tenor cantata Ich weiss, dass mein Erloeser lebt. In the following season he will perform Orff’s Carmina Burana with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Syracuse Symphony. He will also be performing Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin in an historical edition with David Breitman, forte pianist at the State University of New York at Fredonia.
Past highlights include appearances with the Handel and Haydn Society in a staged production of Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers for which the Wall Street Journal hailed the "sensuousness of his vocal line". Dr. Gray performed the title role in Handel's monumental oratorio Samson and the title role in Carissimi's Jephte with the Amor Artis Chorale and Orchestra in New York City. At Harvard University he has performed Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and has appeared in Bach's Magnificat under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. He also appeared in Lully’s opera Thesee in Boston Early Music Festival’s main-stage production of 2001. Dr. Gray is an alumnus of Emmanuel Music where a thirty-five year tradition of weekly performances of Bach’ Sacred Cantatas continues under the direction of Craig Smith. With Emmanuel Music Dr. Gray has performed over forty of Bach's Sacred Cantatas as a soloist, over one hundred as a chorister and has performed much of the music of Heinrich Schütz. He has appeared in Emmanuel Music’s evening concerts in Handel's Saul and Brockes Passion, Schubert's Mass in E flat, and Bach's St. John Passion (1725 version) which was subsequently recorded on the Koch International label. On the operatic stage he has performed such roles as Anatol in Barber's Vanessa, Quint in Britten's Turn of the Screw and Pedrillo in Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail
Winner of the National Federation of Music Club's Student Competition, he toured France under the auspices of the Robert Shaw Festival Singers and has participated in numerous Telarc recordings under the late Maestro Shaw and with Boston Baroque under the direction of Martin Pearlman. He has been a fellow at the Bach Aria Festival and the Carmel Bach Festival where he returned as a soloist.
As a conductor, Dr. Gray has earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Iowa. He has studied choral and orchestral conducting with Donald Neuen, George Mabry, William Hatcher and James Dixon. He has sung as a professional chorister in choirs such as Boston Baroque, Emmanuel music of Boston and the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston where he worked with Seiji Ozawa, Christopher Hogwood, Andrew Parrott, Martin Pearlman, Craig Smith, Harry Bicket, Paul McCreesh, Rindaldo Alessandrini, Bruno Weill, Robert Spano, John Harbison and Grant Llewellyn. Dr. Gray counts his involvement in numerous workshops, and performances with the late Robert Shaw as a primary influence in his philosophy and approach to the choral art. Dr. Gray brings twenty years of experience with choirs of all levels from fully professional choirs to the smallest church choirs to his current position as conductor of the Fredonia College Choir. Dr. Gray is currently an
Associate Professor at the State University of New York. at Fredonia.
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