Author - Gustav Meier

An acclaimed conductor, Gustav Meier is also known internationally as a teacher of conductors. He has led orchestras around the globe while teaching at Yale University, the Eastman School of Music, University of Michigan, and Tanglewood Music Center. His performances include appearances with the Zurich Tonhalle, Sao Paolo, China National, Pittsburgh, Colorado and Alabama Symphony Orchestras; New York City, Santa Fe, Miami, San Francisco, Zurich, and Minnesota Opera Companies; and the Budapest and Vienna State Opera Orchestras.

His students have appeared with every major orchestra and opera company in the United States and abroad, some currently serving as music directors of illustrious musical institutions. Recently, Marin Alsop was appointed music director of the Baltimore Symphony, the first woman to be named music director of a major U.S. orchestra. Yakov Kreizberg is chief conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic, and Jun Markle is music director of the Mannheim National Theater. Other students have won first prizes in prestigious conducting competitions: the Karajan in Berlin, Stokowski and Lorin Maazel competitions in New York City, the First International Eduardo Mata Conducting Competition in Mexico City, and the Mario Gusella International Competition in Pecara, Italy.

Honored with the Ditson Prize for his commitment to American music, Maestro Meier is also the recipient of awards from Harvard and Columbia Universities. He holds honorary doctorates from Fairfield University in Connecticut, Kalamazoo College, and Michigan State University.

Maestro Meier completed his 27th and final season as Music Director of the Greater Lansing Symphony in May 2006. In October of 2010 he will start his 39th season as Music Director of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony. He is director of the conducting program at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland. Conducting workshops take him to all corners of the world such as Vancouver, Canada; Cabrillo, California; New York City; Beijing, China; Prague, Czechoslovakia; and Sofia, Bulgaria.

Maestro Meier lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he and his wife, Emy, enjoy downtown living near Zingerman’s Deli, the Kerrytown Market, and Concert House. They have four children and seven grandchildren. In his “spare time” he is writing a memoir of his early years in Switzerland.