Current Positions
- South Dakota Symphony Orchestra – Music Director
Current Activities
- Lakota Music Project at the National Museum of the American Indian
- Modesto Symphony (Music Director Finalist)
Recent Activities
- Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra
- Hungary Crescendo Summer InstituteThe Cleveland Orchestra
- Philadelphia Orchestra
- Chicago Symphony
- American Composer’s Orchestra
- New York Philharmonic (Young People’s Concerts)
- Columbus Symphony Orchestra
- Phoenix Symphony
- Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
- Singapore Philharmonic
- Kiev Symphony Orchestra
Endeavors
Conductor Delta David Gier has launched Bridge Projects to foster collaborative relationships between symphony orchestras and local communities. The term “bridge project” is designed to use music to create an understanding between communities which are strangers…often within the same city or region.
Bridge Projects endeavors have received widespread recognition: the 2016 Bush Foundation Prize for Community Innovation and a 2015 Mellon Foundation grant.
Every Bridge Project is unique and follows Maestro Gier’s three-phase template:
- Discover Your Communities to identify ethnic, academic and/or artistic communities for the symphony to engage
- Build Your Bridges to establish ongoing relationships with community leaders and artists
- Make Music Together to create programs directed by Maestro Gier to showcase the symphony’s tradition alongside those of the community being served, with collaborations featuring artists from a variety of disciplines
Maestro Gier’s initial “bridge project” was the Lakota Music Project with the South Dakota Symphony and the Lakota Nation resident on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The result several years later is an ongoing collaboration with Lakota musicians and members of the Symphony, including four commissioned pieces for the collaborative ensemble to play together.
Other Bridge Projects include working with composers Zhou Long and Chen Yi to create programs which have engaged the Chinese community; working with Sudanese and Somali refugee communities in the United States; and, going into schools and other venues to play and teach about Arab music and culture.
Noteworthy
- Ditson 2022 Conductor’s Award for the advancement of American music, awarded by Columbia University
- South Dakota Hall of Fame “Dream Chaser” Honors Award Class of 2020
- Bush Foundation Prize for Community Innovation (2016) recognizing Maestro Gier and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra’s accomplishments, visionary leadership and commitment to service
- Mellon Foundation grant for the Bridge Project (2015)
- ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming (2007, 2008 & 2009) for innovative programming featuring works of Pulitzer Prize-winning composers and the Orchestra’s program of residencies for those composers
- Recorded American composer Carson Kievman Symphony No 2 (42) with Polish National Radio Symphony (on New Albion)
- A many-year relationship as cover conductor with the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera
- Fulbright scholarship focused on Eastern Europe and Turkey where he conducted widely and introduced American masterpieces at venues such as Bucharest Philharmonic (Romania) and the Presidential Symphony (Ankara, Turkey)
Artist Website: www.deltadavidgier.com
For a complete biography, please contact William Reinert Associates, Inc.