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  Dr. Allen Robert Gross
Music Director & Conductor

"Allen Gross has the rare ability to excite an orchestra, to get it to reach beyond its capabilities... "(Los Angeles Times)

The American conductor ALLEN ROBERT GROSS has conducted orchestras world-wide to great acclaim.
He is the Music Director and Conductor of the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra in California, a position he has held for the past fourteen years. Dr. Gross is also Professor of Music at Occidental College, and a member of the music faculty of the California Institute of Technology.

Invitations and tours have taken Allen Gross to many countries. He has taken international tours to France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary. He been invited to conduct in China and Cuba and has conducted the Orquesta Sinfonica de Matanzas as part of the International Festival of Contemporary Music.

Allen Gross was born in New York City. He was selected for the famed music & arts high school and fondly remembers his years there. He took his Masters in music from Berkeley and his Doctorate in music from Stanford University.

Allen Gross began his professional conducting career in Germany, where he served as Musical Director of the Heidelberg Castle Festival, Conductor of the Junges Kammerorchester Heidelberg, and held conducting positions in the opera houses of Freiburg and Aachen. He made a number of studio recordings for the South German Radioith with the Junges Kammerorchester Heidelberg.

Coming to Los Angeles in 1983, Dr. Gross joined the music faculties of Occidental and Caltech Universities and became director of the Occidental-Caltech Symphony.

Allen Gross has an avid interest in working with developing players. He served as Music Director/Conductor of the Pasadena Young Musicians Orchestra from 1987 through 1991, and has been the conductor of the Pasadena Summer Youth Chamber Orchestra for the past sixteen years.
Allen Gross has a wide range of musical interests and is a fervent educator of new audiences. He is known both as a specialist in the traditional Austro-German and Central European repertoire, and also as an interpreter of new music. He has premiered new compositions with the Santa Monica Symphony, the Occidental~Caltech Symphony, and in local and foreign guest conducting appearances.
For further information please visit http://www.dlynnwaldron.com/AllenGross.html

 

  Michael Emery
Concertmaster

At the age of ten, Michael Emery began his musical studies with Alfredo Cavalieri, and in two years was selected to perform in the Carnegie Recital Hall by the Violin, Viola, and Violoncello Teacher's Guild of New York City. In 1972, he was the first prizewinner in the advanced instrumental competition of the Albany League of Arts and winner of the Albany Symphony Concerto Competition. The following year he was soloist in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto as winner of the Northeastern Student Orchestra Concerto Competition.

After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from the College of St. Rose in Albany, Mr. Emery began his career as recitalist throughout New York and New England. As a scholarship student in the Master of Music Performance program at the Manhattan School of Music, he was a student of Erick Friedman and the late Raphael Bronstein, served as concertmaster of the Manhattan Symphony, and was selected to perform in the master classes of Henryk Szeryng and Ruggiero Ricci.

Mr. Emery has performed in the Sibelius, Ludwig Spohr and the Paganini International Violin Competitions, and was invited to participate in the Tchaikovsky International Competition.
During the past nine summer seasons, Mr. Emery has toured internationally as concertmaster and soloist with the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Monica Chamber Philharmonia under the direction of Dr. Allen Robert Gross in major cities throughout Europe.

This summer, tours are planned with both the Santa Monica and the newly formed Central New York Summer Orchestra under the direction of Charles Schneider.
Mr. Emery is concertmaster and is a frequent soloist with several orchestras in the Upstate New York region including the Utica, Catskill, Schenectady, and Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to his teaching positions at Skidmore College and the College of St. Rose, Mr. Emery teaches privately in his studios in Saratoga Springs and Schenectady.

 

The Santa Monica Chamber Philharmonia

The Santa Monica Chamber Philharmonia was formed in 1996 consisting primarily of members of the Santa Monica Symphony. For the past seven years, the orchestra has also added players New York State to become a bi-coastal ensemble. Its Concertmaster, Michael Emery, is the concertmaster of the Schenectady and Glens Falls Symphony Orchestras (NY) and is a prominent violin soloist as well.

This year the orchestra is making its eleventh European tour, having performed to great acclaim in Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Germany and Austria. The orchestra takes great pride in presenting music by American composers as well as the traditional chamber orchestra repertoire.