Oregon Symphony Conductor Bio

Gregory Vajda

Oregon Symphony Resident Conductor

Hailed as a “young titan” by the Montreal Gazette after conducting the Montreal Symphony in Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Schoenberg’s Erwartung, Gregory Vajda has fast become one of the most sought-after conductors on the international scene.

After completing his tenure as assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2005, Vajda has been resident conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra since the 2005/06 season. In 2009 he was also appointed artistic and music director of California’s Music in the Mountains – only the second conductor to hold that position in the festival’s 28-year history.

Vajda’s 2009/10 season begins with a stint at the Hungarian Radio, followed by his first return to the Hungarian State Opera since emigrating to the United States. In his adopted country he leads subscription concerts with the Oregon Symphony, debuts with the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Seattle Symphony, and returns to the San Antonio Symphony and Symphony Silicon Valley.

The 2008/09 season marked Vajda’s introduction to the Salzburg Festival where, as assistant conductor to Peter Eötvös, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Chorus in a performance of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle before returning to the Atlanta Opera to lead La Cenerentola. On the orchestra stage, he conducted the Toronto, Edmonton, San Antonio and Silicon Valley symphonies. He also helped inaugurate the widely talked-about Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York with a performance of Grabstein für Stephan by György Kurtag.

In addition to conducting, Vajda is also a clarinetist and composer. Recently, he conducted his own composition for the silent film The Crowd at the Louvre in Paris with American pianist Jay Gottlieb. He has also recorded his piece Duevoe with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was honored with the Zoltán Kodály State Scholarship for composers in 2000 and the Annie Fischer State Scholarship for music performers in 1999.

Born in Budapest, Vajda is the son of renowned soprano Veronika Kincses. He studied composition at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under Professor Ervin Lukács and was a conducting student of composer and conductor Peter Eötvös.