JAMES GAFFIGAN
CONDUCTOR
“Gaffigan — throughout the concert, drawing out playing that was controlled and urgent but also delicate and natural — emphasized the eerily seductive beauties of this grand, colorful, astringent score, with all its subdued sourness and shivery anxiety.”
Recognized worldwide for his natural ease and extraordinary collaborative spirit, American conductor James Gaffigan has attracted international attention for his prowess as a conductor of both symphony orchestras and opera. The mutual trust he builds with artists empowers them to cultivate the highest art possible.
Recently named the next Music Director of Houston Grand Opera, Gaffigan will assume his new role in the 2027/28 season. Commencing as Music Director Designate in the 2026/27 season, his initial term will last for five seasons, through 2031/32. In Fall 2025, he conducts HGO’s new Francesca Zambello production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.
A rarity among American conductors for his rise to prominence in the esteemed houses and concert halls of Europe, Gaffigan is in demand at opera companies and symphony orchestras across the world. Gaffigan serves as the General Music Director of Komische Oper Berlin, where he leads his third season in 2025/26. He also serves as Music Director of the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra.
In the 2025/26 season, Gaffigan leads Komische Oper Berlin in Evgeny Titov’s new production of Salome and Barrie Kosky’s new production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, along with revivals of Eugene Onegin, Hansel and Gretel, and The Nose. Guest engagements include appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and National Symphony Orchestra. In Europe, he returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Les Arts Valencia Opera, and the Verbier Festival.
In August 2025, Gaffigan marked his fourth and final season as Music Director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. He is the former Chief Conductor of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, a position he held for 10 years, where he significantly elevated the orchestra’s international profile with highly successful recordings and tours abroad. He also served as Principal Guest Conductor of both the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera.
Gaffigan has conducted for the Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra National de Paris, Zürich Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dutch National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Santa Fe Opera, among many others.
He also prioritizes maintaining an equal balance as a symphonic conductor. He regularly leads the world’s greatest orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, among many others.
In Europe, he has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and Czech Philharmonic, and he maintains ongoing relationships with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
A champion of new music, Gaffigan has led more than 30 premieres by composers including Thomas Adès, Kaija Saariaho, Anders Hillborg, Andrew Norman, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Wynton Marsalis.
In the most recent of his nearly 20 recordings, he conducted the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester in Americans (harmonia mundi), an album of works by Bernstein, Barber, Crawford, and Ives. His discography also includes recordings with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Choir, and Frankfurt Radio Symphony.
Gaffigan’s early training in New York City’s public schools, including LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, inspired his belief in music education and access to the arts. A dedicated and astute mentor to the next generation of artists, he believes that broadening access to music education is essential to ensuring that America’s concert halls reflect the diversity of their communities. He regularly works with young musicians at The Juilliard School, Aspen Music Festival and School, Music Academy of the West, and the Verbier Festival.
His first titled positions included a three-year tenure as Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, a position created for him by Michael Tilson Thomas, and he served as Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, where he worked with Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. Gaffigan was first prize winner of the 2004 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition, a milestone that opened Europe’s doors to him as a young American.
Gaffigan earned his undergraduate degree at the New England Conservatory of Music, followed by conducting studies at the Shepherd School of Music at Houston’s Rice University, where he studied with Larry Rachleff. Gaffigan is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival’s Aspen Conducting Academy and the Tanglewood Music Center.
James Gaffigan is married to Marta Wasilewicz-Gaffigan, and they currently reside in Berlin. Gaffigan has three children.
Born in 1994 in Seoul, Seong-Jin Cho started learning the piano at 6 and gave his first public recital at age 11. In 2009, he became the youngest-ever winner of Japan’s Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. In 2011, he won Third Prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the age of 17. In 2012, he moved to Paris to study with Michel Béroff at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique from which he graduated in 2015. He is now based in Berlin.
“This was very much a duet with a New York Philharmonic that played under Gaffigan with transparency, warmth and restraint.”
“As a podium technician, the guy’s a beacon. Gaffigan uses his whole body to conduct, and when it’s a program like this, that means hip-swinging, two-stepping and Bernstein-bouncing. His body language projected the evening’s many rhythms — often layered simultaneously — with clarion lucidity. He was also a genial colleague.”
“Gaffigan offered an intense, full-throated reading, with an emphasis on galvanic fortissimos, fiercely stated string playing and extreme dynamic contrasts. He seemed intent on keeping the music moving along, especially in the enormous first movement, but he did not sacrifice the profundities of its final pages.”
“James Gaffigan’s conducting is simply terrific—big in character and bringing out all of the drama and humor of Mozart’s glorious score with the Lyric Opera Orchestra.”
“Gaffigan threaded that needle seamlessly across the architecture of the hour-long work, launching with a Mozartian opener notable for its lightness, jollity and balance.”
“Under James Gaffigan, the orchestra delivered a knock-out performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's scintillating score in a two-hour, interval-less showpiece of instrumental virtuosity.”
“The Komische Oper orchestra sounded fantastic under conductor James Gaffigan, who kept everything moving with terrific zing.”
“James Gaffigan and his orchestra are infectiously focused on making the most of their evening in Neukölln.”
“An inspired James Gaffigan extracted the best from the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.”
“Gaffigan made the pit sing and signed off on one of his best nights in Valencia with a direction full of colors, nuances and those fragrances and subtleties that are the mark of Massenet’s very French music.”
“Gaffigan’s command of colour, rhythm, structure, and harmony are superb.”
“Under Gaffigan’s direction, the outlasting Debussy work — La Mer — was magnificent. Fineness and strenuousness balanced beautifully, the instrumental balance itself supporting every gesture. The final effect was like that of a pointillist painting — impressive whether seen from a distance or up close, at the level of a speck.”
“Guest conductor James Gaffigan led Friday’s concert, which opened with the finest performance of a Mozart symphony I’ve ever heard from the orchestra.”
“Gaffigan was a commanding presence as he confidently led the musicians. Gaffigan’s clear view and pacing gave excellent shape to the overall work. The audience rose instantly with bravos and the orchestra allowed him to take his own bow.”
“Gaffigan guided the orchestra through it all in fine form, and the orchestra’s response was an excellent one.”
“Gaffigan flaunted an unbridled enthusiasm in Thursday’s program. He also showed an exacting dedication to music-making. Conducting at times with his eyes closed, lovingly shaping phrases with cradled arms, he brought out the tenderness and delicacy of Beethoven’s orchestration. As the music turned stormy, the ensemble didn’t round the edges of thunderous, booming passages, giving articulated notes a stalactite edge.”
“I think communicating music is, of course, important but bringing people together and getting people to move together and breathe together is a beautiful job. I love my job, but it’s hard to put into words what it is we do up there but at the end of the day it’s bringing people together and whatever language they speak or whatever place they’re from, somehow we’re all coming together and doing the same piece of music in a very united fashion.”