Victoria Bond
conductor
A major force in 21st century concert music, Victoria Bond leads a dual career as composer and conductor. Her compositions have been praised by the New York Times as “powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding,” and her conducting has been called “impassioned” by the Wall Street Journal and “full of energy and fervor” by the New York Times.
Bond has been commissioned by The American Ballet Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Houston and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, Cleveland and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestras, Women’s Philharmonic, Soli Deo Gloria, The Young Peoples’ Chorus, Manhattan Choral Ensemble, Choral Society of the Hamptons and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Her compositions have been performed by the Dallas Symphony, New York City Opera, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Anchorage Opera, Irish National Orchestra (RTE), Shanghai Symphony and members of the New York Philharmonic, among others. She is the recipient of the Victor Herbert Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Walter Hinrichsen Award, the Perry F. Kendig Award and the Miriam Gideon Prize.
Bond has served as Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony and guest conducted throughout the United States, Europe, South America and China. The first woman awarded a doctorate in orchestral conducting from The Juilliard School, Bond has served as Music Director of the New Amsterdam and Roanoke Symphony Orchestras, Artistic Director of Opera Roanoke, Harrisburg Opera and Bel Canto Opera, Music Adviser of the Wuhan Symphony in China and is Principal Guest Conductor of Chamber Opera Chicago.
She has guest conducted the Honolulu, Buffalo, Richmond, Louisville, Albany, Anchorage, Dallas and Houston symphony orchestras; Cleveland and St. Paul chamber symphonies; Opera Carolina; Festival of Contemporary Music in Santos, Brazil; Radio Telefis Eirann in Dublin, Ireland; Center for Contemporary Opera in New York; and the Shanghai, Hunan, and Wuhan symphony orchestras and Beijing Central Opera in China. She was assistant conductor of New York City Opera under Beverly Sills, and conducted orchestral concerts for Ray Charles, leading his 70th birthday concert in Warsaw, Poland. She has worked with Andre Previn, Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sixten Ehrling, Leonard Slatkin, James Conlon, Herbert Blomstedt, and Herbert von Karajan.
Recent performances of her compositions include: Bridges by the Michigan Philharmonic and the National Repertory Orchestra; Soul of a Nation by the Riverside County Philharmonic; How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place from Psalm 84, commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria at Temple Emanuel and St. John the Divine sung by a combined choir; Rashomon by Kyo-Shin Arts, Instruments of Revelation by Ballet Chicago and the Orion Ensemble, and the workshop performance of her opera Clara about Clara Schumann. Scenes from Bond’s opera Mrs. President were performed by the New York City Opera as part of VOX in 2001 and the complete opera was performed in concert by the Anchorage Opera in October 2012. Of the opera, Allan Kozinn in The New York Times wrote: “Victoria Bond has struck gold.” Bond’s Hanukkah opera Miracle! Was commissioned by the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, and will be premiered in 2016. She has composed eight operas, six ballets, two piano concertos and numerous orchestral, chamber, choral and keyboard compositions. Ms. Bond produces Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York and is a frequent pre-concert lecturer for the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall and for the Metropolitan Opera’ HD simulcasts at Guild Hall. She has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and on NBC’s Today Show and featured in People magazine and in the New York Times. Her music is published by Theodore Presser, C.F. Peters, G. Schirmer, and Subito Music and recorded on the Koch International, Albany, GEGA, Protone, and Family Classic labels.
Bond has a masters and doctorate from the Juilliard School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. Her teachers include Ingolf Dahl (composition, USC), William Vennard (voice, USC), Roger Sessions (composition Julliard), Jean Morel, James Conlon and Sixteen Ehrling (conducting, Juilliard), Leonard Slatkin and Herbert Blomstedt (conducting, Aspen) and Herbert von Karajan (master class, Juilliard). She has taught at Juilliard, The Conductor’s Institute, New York University and in the spring will design and teach online courses for Nyack College. She has honorary doctorates from Hollins and Roanoke Colleges, and Washington and Lee University. She was voted Woman of the Year, Virginia in 1990 and 1991.
http://www.victoriabond.com/
