Maestro Allen Robert Gross:Music Director & Conductor
MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR, THE SANTA MONICA SYMPHONY
DIRECTOR, THE OCCIDENTAL-CALTECH SYMPHONY
CONDUCTOR, THE SANTA MONICA CHAMBER PHILHARMONIA
PROFESSOR OF MUSIC AT OCCIDENTAL, MUSIC FACULTY AT CAL-TECH
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS HONORED THE SANTA MONICA SYMPHONY
WITH A GRANT TO BRING ITS ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE TO THE COMMUNITY .
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS OF ALLEN ROBER GROSS
“He got his clayers . . . to play with wonderful spirit and freedom. Beethoven's First Symphony romped joyously, its instrumental detail frank and characterful, its accents emphatic and springy. . . . In all its essentials, the music bloomed.”
Timothy Mangan, LOS ANGELES TIMES
“The American conductor Allen Gross is a style-conscious interpreter who is also fascinated by the unique, distinctive qualities of each work. The tremendous enthusiasm which he arouses in the orchestra is used to polish as well as to vitalize the score. For him, the historical becomes the present.”
Heidelberg TAGEBLATT
“Allen Robert Gross has the rare ability to excite an orchestra... he projects assurance and enthusiasm from the podium, clearly in charge. . . In Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Gross realized the seldom-delivered... forceful, irresistible rhythm this symphony is mainly about. While observing every repeat, he was able to shape the argument in a distinctly individual manner, with sharpened edges and the willingness to hold back at the right times in order to crank up the energy level later. . . Clearly, Santa Monica has found something special in its new music director.”
Richard S. Ginell, LOS ANGELES TIMES
“The experience was thrilling.... Allen Robert Gross coached the musicians to such a level of technical finesse and intimacy with the music that, together, they unleashed its full emotional impact. He presided over the performances with the relaxed, inspiring, and precise gestures that stem from total confidence in the orchestra’s competence.”
Frans van Rossum SANTA MONICA MIRROR
Allen Gross conducts with an expressive flowing athleticism that evokes the essence of the music for both the musicians and the audience. His scholarship, his care, and his knowledge of every instrument, turn his rehearsals into a master class for each section of the orchestra.
Dr. Allen Robert Gross
Music Director & Conductor
The American conductor ALLEN ROBERT GROSS has been lauded world-wide for his imaginative and probing interpretations of the standard and contemporary orchestra and chamber orchestra repertoires. He is beginning his seventeenth season as Music Director and Conductor of the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra in California, during which he has established the orchestra as one of the leading community orchestras in the country.
Recent guest invitations have also taken him to China and to Cuba, where he conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica de Matanzas as part of the International Festival of Contemporary Music. His position as Conductor of the Santa Monica Chamber Philharmonia has resulted in highly acclaimed international tours to the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. He is also Professor of Music at Occidental College, and a member of the music faculty of the California Institute of Technology.
Born in New York City, Gross began his professional conducting career in Germany, where he served as Musical Director of the Heidelberg Castle Festival, Conductor of the Junges Kammerorchester Heidelberg, and held conducting positions in the opera houses of Freiburg and Aachen. With the Junges Kammerorchester Heidelberg he made a number of studio recordings for the South German Radio. Coming to Los Angeles in 1983, he assumed the direction of the Occidental-Caltech Symphony as a member of the music faculties at those institutions.
Gross has a wide range of musical interests. While specializing in the traditional Austro–German and Central European repertoire, he is also an active interpreter of new music, as well as a fervent educator for new audiences. Gross has conducted at Los Angeles' Monday Evening Concerts and the Minnesota Composers Forum in addition to conducting broadcast concerts of new American music from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has also premiered new compositions with the Santa Monica Symphony, the Occidental–Caltech Symphony, and in local and foreign guest conducting appearances.
Gross also has an avid interest in working with developing players. He served as Music Director/Conductor of the Pasadena Young Musicians Orchestra from 1987 through 1991, and has been the conductor of the Pasadena Summer Youth Chamber Orchestra for the past sixteen years.
Gross conducted the Santa Monica Symphony in a special Martin Luther King Concert featuring Juandalyn Abernathy.
Allen Gross's ability to make young people enthusiastic about classical music has changed the demographic of the audience of the Santa Monica Symphony from mostly older people to a cross section of the community including many teenagers, and he encourages parents and grandparents to bring children, and children from the audience get to come on stage and present the flowers.
At the symphony's open rehearsals for children and their parents, Allen is able to establish an instant rapport with a lively interactive talk, before the children go in to the rehearsal.
For the rehearsal, every available space in the school auditorium is filled with children and their parents. Children as young as three will stand facing Allen and conduct Mozart with him. Some children are so enraptured by the symphonic music that at the break they have to be pulled to the door by their parents. Some parents give up and let their children stay for the entire 2 1/2 hour rehearsal.
In April 2004, there was a concert for sixteen-hundred 3rd and 4th grade students that featured 'A Colorful Symphony' based on The Phantom Tollbooth and Bizet's L'Arlesienne. There will be another children's concert in the 2005-2006 Season. For a full description and more photos go to Santa Monica Symphony reviews & articles page.
At the concerts, it is a delight to see very young children sitting enthralled with a symphony orchestra playing classical music. Some are brought by grandparents who came themselves at children to the Santa Monica Symphony.
At the conclusion of the concerts children come down to the front of the stage to meet the maestro and have him sign their programs and special cards.
Off the podium, Allen Gross enjoys backpacking in the mountains, nature photography, and cross country skiing.
Allen is an adventuresome cook who enjoys preparing dishes from all parts of the world.
Allen and Karen Gross have been married 40 years and have a son and a daughter.
The delightful Mrs. Gross is a great asset for the Symphony.
Professor Allen Robert Gross agross@caltech.edu
Allen Robert Gross, Professor: Music Department, Occidental College
Teaches courses in conducting, orchestral literature, and materials of music. Conductor of the Occidental-Caltech Orchestra. Education: B.A., Queens College; M.A., University of California, Berkeley; D.M.A., Stanford University. Professional work:Artistic Director and Conductor of the Santa Monica Symphony; guest conductor and orchestral clinician. http://departments.oxy.edu/music/faculty.htm
Allen Robert Gross, Conductor: Occidental College-California Institute of Technology Orchestra
Allen Gross (Occidental College Music Faculty), conductor
The Occidental-Caltech Symphony consists of instrumentalists from Occidental, the California Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and members of the community. The orchestra presents concerts on both the Occidental and Caltech campuses. The Symphony performs a varied repertoire of classic, romantic, and contemporary music. An annual Student Concerto Competition, held the first week in December, allows winners the opportunity to perform as soloists with the Symphony. Membership is by audition at the beginning of the academic year. Rehearsals are held at Occidental, and extra rehearsals are scheduled before each concert http://departments.oxy.edu/music/concerts.htm
Allen Robert Gross, Director: Occidental College Chamber Music Ensembles,
The Occidental Chamber Music Ensembles are made up of instrumentalists who are interested in performing chamber music for various media and drawn from various historical periods and styles. Among the usual ensembles are an early music recorder group, a brass ensemble, and various combinations of strings, woodwinds, and piano. Students will perform at least twice during the year on regularly scheduled chamber music recitals. The ensembles receive coaching from Prof. Gross and the applied music faculty. http://departments.oxy.edu/music/ensembles.htm
