Among several previous visits, Andrew Grams most recently conducted the North Carolina Symphony with the N.C. Master Chorale for concerts in 2022 featuring Handel’s Messiah.
American conductor Andrew Grams, winner of 2015 Conductor of the Year from the Illinois Council of Orchestras, has led orchestras throughout the United States including the National Symphony Orchestra; the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Dallas; and The Philadelphia Orchestra. His engagements during the 2024/25 season have included the BBC Proms, where he led the Chineke! Orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, as well as concerts with the chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
Grams served for eight seasons as music director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra in Illinois, beginning in 2013, and has worked extensively with orchestras including the symphony orchestras of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver; Orchestre national de France; Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra; BBC Symphony Orchestra; the symphony orchestras of Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide; Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and Het Residentie Orkest in The Hague, Netherlands. Also an educator, he has worked with orchestras at institutions such as the Curtis Institute of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Born in Severn, Maryland, Grams began studying the violin when he was eight years old. He received a bachelor’s degree in violin performance from The Juilliard School and a conducting degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. Selected to spend the summer of 2003 at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, he returned to that program in 2004. He served as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra from 2004-2007 and has since returned for several engagements.
Grams was a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra from 1998-2004, serving as acting associate principal second violin in 2002 and 2004. Additionally, he has performed with ensembles including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the New Jersey Symphony.
