Oregon Symphony Conductor Bio

Gregory Vajda

Oregon Symphony Resident Conductor

Gregory Vajda is in his seventh and final season as resident conductor of the Oregon Symphony, a post he assumed in 2005.  Since 2009 he has served as artistic and music director of California’s Music in the Mountains, and this year he takes up new responsibilities as music director of the Huntsville Symphony in Alabama.

In addition to his performances with these three orchestras, conducting engagements during the 2011/12 season will see him returning to the Seattle and Edmonton Symphonies and making his debut leading the Toledo Symphony.  Past seasons have taken him to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa) and the Baltimore, Calgary, Louisville, Milwaukee, Omaha, San Antonio, Toronto and Winnipeg symphonies.

As an opera conductor, Vajda has led performances for Atlanta Opera, Montreal Opera, Hungarian State Opera and the Salzburg Festival.

Vajda is also a gifted clarinetist and composer. Born in Budapest, he studied composition at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under Professor Ervin Lukács and was a conducting pupil of composer and conductor, Péter Eötvös.