AWARDS & PREMIERES
AWARDS
Gary Sheldon was the first winner of the The American Prize in Conducting, professional orchestra division, in 2010. Also a prizewinner in the BBC-Rupert Conducting Competition and the Stokowski Conducting Competition, Sheldon received the Bill Graham Award for Distinguished Service in the Arts in 1996, in recognition of his dedication to education and community outreach as music director of the Marin Symphony in California.
Premieres
Major premieres conducted by Gary Sheldon include the first U.S. performance of Alberto Ginastera's complete ballet music Estancia with the Marin Symphony in 1991. Sheldon also conducted the world premiere of Leslie Burrs' gospel opera Vanqui with Opera Columbus and the world premiere of Frank DiGiacomo's opera Beauty and the Beast with the Opera Theatre of Syracuse where he served as principal conductor. He also led the world premiere of compositions by Mark Volkert, winner of the Marin Symphony Composer Competition and Anthony Iannaconne, winner of the Lancaster Festival Composer Competition. The Lancaster Festival also commissioned new works by Gary William Friedman including Passages for Clarinet and Orchestra and the ballet Puss n' Boots.
Sheldon also conducted the first complete recording of William Bolcom's Concerto for Clarinet with Richard Stolzman, clarinetist and the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, heard on the Marquis Classics CD, Ragomania.
Ragomania CD review: "The performances offer examples of the top-notch playing that can be found around the U.S. at outdoor summer festivals...an upbeat program, engagingly performed, and unusually coherent". AllMusic Review