The Maestro:
russell ger, MUSIC DIRECTOR

Winner of the prestigious Brian Stacey Memorial Trust Award for Emerging Australian Conductors and the Special Orchestra Prize in the Makris International Conducting Competition in Serbia, and finalist in the Sir Georg Solti Chicago Symphony Orchestra Conducting Competition, Russell Ger is one of the foremost Australian conductors of his generation.

Since 2016, Mr. Ger has been Music Director of the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra in New York, where he conducts six subscription series in addition to sold-out Holiday and Summer Pops concerts. Mr. Ger has transformed the ensemble into a dynamic and vital part of life in the Hudson Valley. Under his leadership, the repertoire has significantly expanded to include living/female/Asian/Latin American & African American composers. The orchestra consistently delivers performances of great artistry for near-capacity audiences.

From 2012-14, Mr. Ger toured North America with revered violinist Itzhak Perlman, promoting a recording of Jewish art-music made for Sony Records. Performances took place at the Hollywood Bowl with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic before an audience of 10,000, and at the Barclays Center arena in New York for an audience of 6,000. The tour also drew capacity houses at the Boca Raton Arts Festival, Boston Celebrity Series at Symphony Hall, Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Long Island, and Toronto. A PBS Special aired in 2014. 

Mr. Ger was invited on scholarship to pursue his Masters of Music in Orchestral Conducting at The Boston Conservatory. He graduated top of his class in 2010. As a proud alumnus of Symphony Australia, the leading conductor-training program in the country, Mr. Ger had the opportunity to work with Australia’s best orchestras. Weeklong residencies were maintained several times a year over four consecutive years with the Adelaide, Melbourne, Queensland, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras.

Music education is one of Mr. Ger’s most ardent commitments, both of young people and of those not yet convinced of the power of orchestral music. He is an outspoken champion of music, giving dozens of multi-media lectures every year to a diverse array of groups from school students to aged care facilities. In addition, Mr. Ger actively nurtured the next generation of musicians through his work with the Norwalk Youth Symphony in Connecticut, which saw hundreds of students perform under his baton over the course of almost a decade.

Mr. Ger is married to Kirsten Hicks, a wonderful Australian woman. Together they reside with their two children in Los Angeles.