Gene Young

Conductor, Peabody Camerata

Composer/conductor Gene Young has long been identified with New Music and its role in the university. Young studied piano, trumpet and conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Mozarteum Akademie in Salzburg, Austria. His primary teachers were William Vacchiano, trumpet; Beryl Ladd, piano; and Erich Leinsdorf, conducting. Prior to his founding the Peabody Camerata, he was the founder/conductor of the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a principal conductor of the New Directions Series at the Oberlin Conservatory where he worked with such renowned composers as Olivier Messiaen, Iannis Xenakis, Milton Babbitt, Mario Davidovsky, Morton Feldman, Robert Erickson, Ernst Krenek and Henry Brant. An assortment of recordings on the CRI, Arista, Orion and Golden Crest labels identifies Young with African-American composers, notably Olly Wilson, Anthony Braxton and Wendell Logan. Young's own compositions have been described as "brief but beautiful...[having] evoked a sense of extreme delicacy" by the Milwaukee Sentinel, and he has been hailed as an "experienced and imaginative composer" by The Wisconsin Post Crescent. Composer Richard Wernick referred to Gene Young as a "national treasure." Within the last few years Young has conducted several premiere performances including the operas Ligeia by Augusta Read Thomas, and With Blood, With Ink by Daniel Crozier with the Peabody Opera Theater. His guest appearances include the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Boston University Tanglewood Institute Orchestra, New England Conservatory Philharmonic and the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Winds. He was a visiting artist for five years at the Hartt School of Music where he was music director/conductor of the Hartt Symphony Orchestra.

In 1994 Young served as assistant to Mstislav Rostropovich at the Evian Festival. For ten years he served as music director/conductor of the world-famous Goldman Band performing at Lincoln Center in New York City. During the 1996-97 academic year, Young held the Edgar Visiting Distinguished Artist in Conducting Chair at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He has conducted two seasons at the Skaneateles, New York Festival and led the Peabody Preparatory Sinfonietta in four widely acclaimed European tours. In 2000 Gene Young completed his second residency at the New England Conservatory where he conducted works by Colin McPhee, Mozart, and George Rochberg. Spring 2001 found Young returning to Oberlin for a five-week visit where he conducted the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble and faculty artists. During the 2000-2001 academic year Young conducted concerts at the New England Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music. In 2004, the Peabody Conservatory commissioned Young to compose a work for its grand reopening and dedication. That work, Banish Evil from this Place, was premiered by the Peabody Camerata and led to a second commission. The Camerata premiered his newest work, No se puedo vivir sin amar, on their October 2005 performance.