Bios

Russell Ger received his Master’s of Music in Orchestral Conducting from The Boston Conservatory in May, 2010. Prior to that, he studied both voice and musicology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He has just returned from Australia where he conducted a highly successful season of Englebert Humperdinck’s famous opera, Hansel and Gretel for Pacific Opera and will be conducting the High Holidays in Toronto for one of the largest synagogues, Adath Israel, whose congregation is over 5000.

Upon graduating from his Bachelor’s degree with First Class Honours Mr. Ger earned the opportunity to participate in the prestigious Symphony Australia Conductor Development Programme through which he worked with many of the top professional ensembles in the country including the Adelaide, Melbourne, Tasmanian and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.

Whilst living in Sydney Mr. Ger conducted an array of professional, community and university ensembles. He was one of the founding members of the Camerata Chamber Orchestra of the University of New South Wales, which specialised in the historically informed performance of 18th century music. He had numerous repeat engagements with different groups including the Eastern Sydney Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Chamber Orchestra, and the University of New South Wales Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble. He also served for two years as Assistant Conductor with the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra. One of the highlights of Mr. Ger’s young career came when he conducted the finale from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Sydney Opera House as part of a major fundraising campaign in 2003 for the Jewish Communal Appeal. The following year he repeated the success of this performance at the Sydney Convention Centre performing before an audience in excess of 3000.

Mr. Ger is an advocate of new music and has enthusiastically collaborated with contemporary composers, directing the world premieres of many new works. Under the auspices of the National Music Theatre Company, in 2007 Mr. Ger conducted the workshop production of an ambitious new work of Australian musical theatre. Mr. Ger received high praise for his musical direction, specifically for crafting ‘the most beautifully and carefully blended ensemble singing in a musical in recent memory.’ It went on to win a place in the New York Music Theatre Festival in 2008.

As an accomplished baritone himself, Mr. Ger has worked extensively with vocalists. In 2008, Pacific Opera invited Mr. Ger to conduct their gala concert. Equally at home in front of an orchestra or chorus, Mr. Ger served as Artistic Director of Bel a Cappella Chamber Choir from 2004 to 2008 during which time he directed a great many performances from the core choral repertoire.

Since August of 2008, Mr. Ger has lived in Boston. There he has received critical approbation for his music making. After a recent performance of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, Mr. Ger was commended in the Boston Musical Intelligencer for his‘well-controlled and expressive reading…excellent in sound and substance…with fine subtlety of tempo and dynamics’. The initial move to the United States was made possible with the generous financial assistance of Symphony Services Australia.