Arnold Gamson

Arnold U. Gamson (born December 30, 1926) is an American conductor who is particularly known for his work within the field of opera. He notably co-founded and served as the Music Director and principal conductor of the American Opera Society from 1950-1960. His work with the AOS was highly influential in sparking and perpetuating the post World War II bel canto revival, particularly through a number of highly lauded productions of rarely heard works by Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini. He is the husband of renowned dancer and choreographer Annabelle Gamson. Their daughter, Rosanna Gamson, is also a celebrated choreographer and their son, David Gamson is composer of platinum-selling popular songs.

Raised in Port Chester, New York, Gamson studied at the Juilliard School( M.S 1953) and while there founded the American Opera Society (AOS) with Allen Sven Oxenburg in 1950. The company was initially envisioned as an organization to perform Renaissance music and baroque operas in the space for which those works for written, in the homes of the rich. The company's first production was Claudio Monteverdi's Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda for an audience of 50 in the drawing room of a mansion on 5th Avenue in New York City. These smaller concerts quickly became so popular that the AOS had to move to increasingly larger venues, ultimately using Carnegie Hall as the company's home. Gamson conducted the company's performances during the 1950s; concerts which mostly featured rarely heard operas from a variety of musical eras. Many of these operas had never been heard in the United States before and featured great vocalists of the period, including Leontyne Price, Jon Vickers and Elisabeth Schwartzkopf and others early in their careers

While working for the AOS, Gamson appeared as a guest conductor with opera companies and orchestras including the Montreal Philharmonic and Teatro de Bellas Artes in Mexico. He notably conducted Eileen Farrell in her opera debut in the title role of Luigi Cherubini's Médée. The work was performed in concert and later recorded for Columbia Records. He conducted Farrell in her first fully staged opera role singing the role of Santuzza in Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana in Tampa, Florida in 1956. During the late 1950s and early 1960s Gamson was an assistant conductor under Leonard Bernstein with the New York City Opera (NYCO). He made his conducting debut at the NYCO with the first professional production of Mark Bucci's Tale for a Deaf Ear on April 6, 1958.

...
Wikipedia