Hailed as a “young titan” by the Montreal Gazette after conducting the Montreal Symphony in Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Schoenberg’s Erwartung, Gregory Vajda has fast become one of the most sought-after conductors on the international scene. After completing his tenure as assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2005, Mr. Vajda took over as resident conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. Prior to his position in Milwaukee, he served as founder and artistic advisor of the Valley of the Arts Summer Festival in Hungary, permanent guest conductor of the Hungarian State Opera, principal conductor of the Ernö Dohnányi Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, and a member of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra.
Season 2008-09 marked Vajda’s introduction to the Salzburg Festival where as assistant conductor to Peter Eötvös he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Chorus, before returning to the Atlanta Opera to lead La Cenerentola. On the orchestra stage, he conducted the Toronto, Edmonton, San Antonio, Fairfax and Silicon Valley symphonies, as well as the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. During the 2007-08 season, Vajda returned to the Montreal Opera, led two subscription concerts with the Oregon Symphony, and conducted the Charlotte Symphony and Santa Rosa Symphony. Overseas he conducted the Budapest Concert Orchestra in a program of American music. His summer engagements included Chicago’s Grant Park Festival and the Round Top Festival in Texas, where he conducted his own orchestral work entitled Duevoe.
2006-07 brought him to the Charlotte Symphony, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony and Atlanta Opera. In summer 2006, he conducted Les Violons du Roy, the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center and returned to the Round Top Festival in Texas, Milwaukee Symphony and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at Lanaudičre Festival.
While assistant conductor with the Milwaukee Symphony, Gregory Vajda led several regional tours as well a yearly classical subscription series. In past seasons, Vajda appeared with St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Winnipeg, Louisville and Omaha symphonies, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and gave the premiere of his chamber opera The Giantbaby at the New Theatre in Budapest. He has also conducted at the festivals of Avignon and Strassbourg, at the Woodstock Mozart Festival and at the Mostly Mozart Festival in Lincoln Center.
In addition to conducting, Vajda is also a clarinetist and composer. Recently, he conducted his own composition for the silent film The Crowd at the Auditorium of the Louvre. He has also recorded his piece Duevoe with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was honored with the Zoltán Kodály State Scholarship for composers for the year 2000, and the Annie Fischer State Scholarship for music performers in the year 1999.
Born in 1973 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of renowned soprano Veronika Kincses, Gregory Vajda studied clarinet and composition at the Béla Bartók secondary school. He then studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under Professor Ervin Lukács. He was also a conducting pupil of the well-known twentieth-century composer and conductor, Péter Eötvös.
