Bio

Bio

GEORGE MATHEW, CONDUCTOR

Singaporean-born Indian conductor, George Mathew, founder and Artistic Director of MUSIC FOR LIFE INTERNATIONAL and UBUNTU-SHRUTI, has emerged as one of the leading forces in the classical music world bringing symphonic music to focus on global humanitarian issues and crises at the beginning of the 21st Century. In 2010-11 he makes appearances in the US, India, Panama, Morocco and South Africa as conductor and ambassador for transformative action through music.

Mr. Mathew returned to Carnegie Hall in January 2009, as Artistic Director and Conductor of MAHLER FOR THE CHILDREN OF AIDS, an international humanitarian benefit concert of Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony to raise public consciousness and funds for global Pediatric AIDS and the Prevention of Mother-to-Child-Transmission of HIV. The concert raised over US$177,000 and was covered extensively by the global media.

Previously he appeared at Carnegie Hall in January 2007, as Artistic Director of REQUIEM FOR DARFUR, a benefit performance of the Verdi Requiem he organized together with UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow, to aid and highlight the plight of the survivors and refugees of the ongoing conflicts in Darfur and Chad. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in January 2006 as Artistic Director and Conductor of BEETHOVEN’S NINTH FOR SOUTH ASIA (BNSA), a benefit concert, to raise funds and public awareness for survivors of the devastating earthquake of 2005. The concert brought together global leaders from the musical, philanthropic, business, academic, governmental and diplomatic communities and raised over US$164,000 in a single evening for relief programmes managed by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins sans Frontières. Since then concert partners have included UNICEF, Refugees International, Catholic Medical Mission Board, American Jewish World Service and National Council of Churches in the USA. Future plans include concerts focusing on Global Climate Change, Pediatric AIDS and the Vertical Transmission of HIV, Parkinson’s Disease, Violence against Women, and Slavery/Human Trafficking.

These concerts, which have cumulatively raised more than US$480,000, brought together distinguished musicians from major international orchestras and other ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, MET Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and other orchestras as well as artists from the Emerson, Mendelssohn, American, Guarneri String Quartets, the Metropolitan Opera and many others.

George Mathew and these humanitarian concerts were profiled in the global media, including BBC WORLD TV and Radio, CNN International, THE WORLD on Public Radio International, the New York Times, New York magazine, Radio France, Voice of America, NY1 television, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition and Morning Edition, the Indian Express, the Pakistan Daily Times, DNA India, Musical America and Symphony magazine. He also appears as narrator and conductor in the forthcoming documentary film on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, FOLLOWING THE NINTH.

In 2010, Mr. Mathew was named Artistic Director and Conductor of the New Year’s Eve Concert for Peace at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This historic concert, held annually in the largest Cathedral in North America, was founded in 1985 by Leonard Bernstein. His first Concert for Peace, to be held on December 31, 2010, will be titled “MASS IN TIME OF A DRONE WAR” and will feature Josef Haydn’s Mass in Time of War as well as music and musicians from Pakistan’s frontier areas.

In March 2010, George Mathew spoke at the United Nations Development Program’s ‘Capacity IS Development’ Global Event in Marrakech, Morocco, presenting the orchestral paradigm as a new leadership model for developing institutions and capacity in the twenty first century. He made his Central American debut at the Music Festival of Panama in Panama City, conducting the Panama Premieres of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony and Panamanian composer Roque Cordero’s Violin Concerto with violinist Rachel Barton Pine. In February 2011 he will make his African debut with the Johannesburg Philharmonic. In January 2012 he will lead the world premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Bollywood legend Javed Akhtar’s Hindustani language translation.

In Fall 2010, Mr. Mathew will launch UBUNTU-SHRUTI a new professional training orchestra of young empowered musicians and distinguished mentors creating inspired music and programming dedicated to immigrants, community, and education through music. The Orchestra will be modeled after the Berlin Philharmonic Academy and be mentored by distinguished musicians from the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, MET Orchestra and L.A. Philharmonic.

Mr. Mathew made his conducting debut at the United Nations in October 2007. He made his Brooklyn Philharmonic conducting debut in June 2007 at the South Street Seaport, New York and served as assistant conductor with the Brooklyn Philharmonic for two seasons. He served on the conducting staff at the Manhattan School of Music 2003-06 and has held previous teaching positions in music theory, music appreciation, and musicianship at Amherst College, the University of Minnesota, and Tufts University where he served as Director of Orchestral Studies. His recent conducting activities have taken him to several orchestras and opera companies in the US, India and Europe including the Spokane Symphony Orchestra in Washington State, the Manchester Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra in New York, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Pescara in Italy, and the Silesian State Opera in Czech Republic. He has also conducted orchestras and other ensembles at Manhattan School of Music, Columbia University, Amherst College, Tufts University, Duke University, Mt. Holyoke College, The University of Minnesota, Susquehanna University and William Paterson University.

As co-Artistic Director of the Salon Nights series from 2002-04 at International House, New York, he produced over 35 orchestral and chamber music concerts. In July 2010, he concludes a four-year term as President of the International House New York Area Alumni Council (NYAAC), having previously served on the Board of Trustees and as Chair of the inaugural Resident Gift Campaign. He serves on the Alumni Council of the Manhattan School of Music.

George Mathew graduated in 2003 from Manhattan School of Music with the Postgraduate Diploma after studies under Zdenek Macal and George Manahan. His mentors have included Sir Colin Davis, Sergiu Comissiona, Wilson Singh, Gunther Schuller, Michael Gilbert, Lorenzo Muti and Kenneth Kiesler. His conducting studies include masterclasses with Leonard Bernstein, Sir Colin Davis, Kurt Masur, Zdenek Macal, David Zinman, Sergiu Comissiona, and George Manahan. He is also a magna cum laude graduate of Amherst College and an alumnus of Duke University and the University of Minnesota.

Mathew lives in Harlem, New York with his wife, Bowie Snodgrass, who is Executive Director of the interfaith organization, FAITH HOUSE MANHATTAN and divides his time between New York and Bangalore, India.