David Gilbert

Former Lake Placid Sinfonietta conductor and Artistic Director has agreed to serve as Interim Artistic Director for the 2019 season which will feature three conductors appearing in audition for an appointment as the Lake Placid Sinfonietta's next Music Director. 

Currently, David Gilbert is Music Director/Conductor of the Greenwich (Connecticut) Symphony Orchestra. He has held this position since 1975. He recently retired from his positions as Conductor in Residence at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City where he taught for 33 years. Also, he retired from his position as Music Director/Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic, based in Teaneck, NJ.  He held this position for 30 years. He has been highly acclaimed for his dynamic performances with orchestras throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East. After winning First Prize in the prestigious 1970 Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition, he served as Assistant Conductor at the New York Philharmonic, 1970-1979, was Principal Conductor of the American Ballet Theatre, 1971-1975, and Chief Assistant to Pierre Boulez at the 1976 Bayreuth Festival in Germany.

At China’s invitation, he served as Principal Guest Conductor and Music Advisor of the Central Philharmonic of Beijing, China (1980-1982), the first American musician to hold a position of national prominence in China, Mr. Gilbert was instrumental in rebuilding that nation’s major symphony orchesra.

Mr. Gilbert’s guest conducting has included the New York Philharmonic and the orchestras of Nashville, New Jersey, Rochester, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Lexington, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Milan’s RAI Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic. He spent seven summers as Music Director of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta and nine years as Guest Conductor at the Manchester VT Music Festival.  For three summers he conducted a series of concerts at the International Piano Festival in Tenerife, Canary Islands.

As Resident Conductor at Manhattan School of Music, he conducted both symphony and opera, including several important premieres, including the NY premiere of Shostakovitch’s opera, The Nose, and the US premiere of Martinu’s opera, Mirandolina. With the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater, Mr. Gilbert has recorded many productions of important American operas which can be heard on Newport Classics, Vox and Albany labels. In 2004 and 2006, he served as the U.S. judge for the International Conducting Competition in Trento, Italy.

In recent years, Mr. Gilbert has conducted many high school orchestra workshops and festivals, including the National High School Honors Orchestra in Cincinnati and the All-Eastern High School Honors Orchestra in Baltimore.

Mr. Gilbert is also a prolific composer, and is currently finishing an opera based on the play in verse, The Shadowy Waters, by the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats.