“Energetic, committed, eminently practical” are among the judges’ comments about Jonathan Griffith ’74, winner of the 2014 American Prize in Conducting.
Griffith has way too many conducting credits to list here. Suffice it to say, he has conducted such diverse entities as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, the European Symphony Orchestra in Spain and the Xin Ya Kong Qi Symphony Orchestra at Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall.
In 2007, Griffith — whose 50-plus conducting appearances at NYC’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center have spanned the major works of the classical repertoire — co-founded Distinguished Concerts International New York and is DCINY’s artistic director.
The for-profit company operates with an innovative, indeed, an eminently practical way of staging classical music concerts without counting on corporate sponsors and other donors: Its choirs are built by auditioning amateur singers who pay for the experience of performing at a top New York venue. The result has been concerts that often garner rave reviews and also sell out.
