Aaron Sherber

Aaron Sherber has been the music director of the Martha Graham Dance Company since 1998 and has led them in acclaimed performances at venues throughout the United States, England, and China, including City Center and the Joyce Theater in New York, the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress in Washington DC, Sadler's Wells in London, and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. In recent seasons, his appearances with the Graham Company have included performances with the American Sympony Orchestra, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, and the Eugene Symphony. Mr Sherber’s work with the Graham Company has been called “a special joy” by the Village Voice, and Dance Magazine praised the “authority [and] balance” he brings.

In addition to his conducting duties, Mr Sherber has prepared new editions of several pieces written for Martha Graham, working from original and intermediate sources, and these editions have been featured both in his own performances with the Graham Company and in performances by other companies. His orchestration of the Scott Joplin pieces used in Graham’s Maple Leaf Rag has been in the Company’s repertoire since 2003, and his new orchestration of Wallingford Riegger’s music for Chronicle was premiered in 2005.

Recent guest appearances include Baltimore Concert Opera, Boston Conservatory, and the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

From 1998 until 2003, Mr Sherber was the music director of Opera Vivente, a company specializing in innovative productions of chamber opera. His performances there included his own orchestral reductions of operas by Mozart and Puccini, as well as other repertoire ranging from the baroque era to the late twentieth century.

Mr Sherber’s previous positions include Staff Conductor for the Peabody Conservatory Opera Department and Music Director of the Branford Chamber Orchestra. He has also worked with the Baltimore Opera Company, the Washington Symphony Orchestra, Washington Summer Opera Theatre, and the Orlando Opera. Mr Sherber holds degrees in philosophy from Yale College and in conducting from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Frederik Prausnitz. He is on the faculty of the Peabody Institute and is the recipient of a Peabody Career Development Grant.