Former Positions
MARIN SYMPHONY
Gary Sheldon served as principal conductor at the Festival at Sandpoint in Idaho from 1999 - 2019 and he was the music director of the Marin Symphony in California from 1990-2000.
With the Marin Symphony, Sheldon established the orchestra's annual composer symposia, the Marin Symphony Chorus, the Orchestra's great artist series, pops concerts and the Orchestra's first children's concert series, including the annual program, Where in the World of Music is Carmen Sandiego?©, a program he created based on the popular children's television show and software game, which subsequently toured throughout the United States.
Photo: Conducting the Marin Symphony with Itzhak Perlman
Mahler Symphony No . 5 - "The Marin Symphony, under Sheldon's secure, knowing, effective leadership, succeeded in giving an excellent performance." Janos Gereben, Marin Independent Journal
Sibelius Symphony No. 1 - "Gary Sheldon's conducting, here as throughout, was passionate and precise at once." Michelle Dulak, San Francisco Classical Voice
All-American Pops - "Maestro Gary Sheldon introduced the program and gave a short commentary before each work in his extremely articulate and witty manner." Carol Benet, Marin Independent Journal
Photo: In rehearsal with Andre Watts.
Gary Sheldon also served as Interim Music Director and Associate Conductor of the Columbus Symphony in Ohio from 1982-1987. He conducted over 200 classical, pops and educational performances with the Orchestra. Guest artists included Ella Fitzgerald, Barry Tuckwell, Yefim Bronfman, Andras Schiff, Wynton Marsalis and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson trio.
Sheldon also served as assistant conductor of the New Orleans Symphony under music director Leonard Slatkin. He performed with guest soloists Van Cliburn and Itzhak Perlman, and conducted over 100 performances throughout the Southeast on tour with orchestra. "Copland's Appalachian Spring was a complete delight. Conductor Sheldon gave the work rhythmic assurance, theatrical life and romantic yearning." Frank Gagnard, New Orleans Times-Picayune
Following conducting studies at Washington University in St. Louis with Walter Susskind and Leonard Slatkin, and studies at the Juilliard School in New York with Jean Morel and Sixten Ehrling, Sheldon was selected as the only American conducting fellow at Tanglewood in 1981 where he studied with Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier, Kurt Masur and Leonard Bernstein.
Photo: Gary Sheldon with President Gerald R. Ford, Jack Nicklaus, Bob Hope and the Columbus Symphony Pops Orchestra.
Studies with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood
Sheldon also attended the music institute in Montreux where he studied with Rudolf Kempe and organized the institute's first composer in residency with Alberto Ginastera.
Guest conducting engagements have included the BBC Symphony-London, Buffalo Symphony, Danish Radio Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Tucson Symphony and the Utah Symphony.
Sheldon also conducted at the Spoleto Festival in Italy ("Don Pasquale") at the invitation of principal conductor Christopher Keene, and at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston where he led the first Festival Finale program at Middleton Place.
"The Spoleto Festival Orchestra, under the gifted baton of Gary Sheldon, executed the music with a finesse and intensity that equaled the best of Spoleto". William Furtwangler, Charleston Evening Post