The Conductors Guild is an non-union organization intended for professional conductors based in the USA. The Guild offers services to enhance the training and development of conductors and promises to represent the views of conductors to the larger community of music professionals.

The Conductors Guild publishes the Journal of the Conductors Guild and a quarterly newsletter, Podium Notes'.' It also sponsors an annual conference that provides a means of bringing new compositions to the attention of conductors. The Guild's training activities include a mentor-apprentice program and annual workshops for conductors lasting from three days to two weeks.

Since 1988 the Conductors Guild has honoured outstanding achievement in the conducting profession with the Theodore Thomas Award. Recipients of the award include Claudio Abbado

Claudio Abbado

Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...

, Sir Georg Solti, Maurice Abravanel

Maurice Abravanel

Maurice Abravanel was aSwiss-American Jewish conductor of classical music. He is remembered as the conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years.-Life:...

, Marin Alsop

Marin Alsop

Marin Alsop is an American conductor and violinist. She is the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.In 2012, Alsop will replace Yan Pascal Tortelier as principal conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra....

, Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur is a German conductor, particularly noted for his interpretation of German Romantic music.- Biography :Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. Masur has been married three times...

, Robert Shaw

Robert Shaw (conductor)

Robert Shaw was an American conductor most famous for his work with his namesake Chorale, with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Shaw received 14 Grammy awards, four ASCAP awards for service to contemporary music, the first Guggenheim Fellowship...

, Frederick Fennell

Frederick Fennell

Frederick Fennell was an internationally recognized conductor, and one of the primary figures in promoting the wind ensemble as a performing group. He was also influential as a band pedagogue, and greatly affected the field of music education in the USA and abroad...

, Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

, David Zinman

David Zinman

David Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.After early violin studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota and took up conducting at Tanglewood...

, Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:...

 and Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.-Early career:...

. The Guild's Max Rudolf Award, given since 1997, recognizes outstanding achievement as a scholar and mentor. Recipients have included Gustav Meier

Gustav Meier

Gustav Meier is the director of the Orchestra Conducting Program at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He is also Music Director of the in Connecticut.-Biography:...

, Herbert Blomstedt

Herbert Blomstedt

Herbert Blomstedt is a Swedish conductor.Herbert Blomstedt was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and two years after his birth, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin...

, Daniel Lewis

Daniel Lewis (conductor)

Daniel George Lewis is an American orchestral conductor and pedagogue. He is a University Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California .- Education :...

, and Paul Vermel.

History

The Conductors Guild had its beginnings in June 1974 at a national conference of the American Symphony Orchestra League (now the League of American Orchestras

League of American Orchestras

The League of American Orchestras, known until Fall 2007 as the American Symphony Orchestra League , is an association of U.S. and Canadian orchestras. Over 950 orchestras are members, including youth, community, and professional orchestras....

) in Memphis, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

. An informal meeting of conductors to discuss challenges facing the profession led to plans to form a professional organisation. The Conductors Guild was officially born in 1975 at the League's San Diego conference. It continued as a subsidiary of the League until becoming a separate organisation in 1985. The first European conference of the Conductors Guild took place in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 in 2010.

Guild events have featured leading figures in the world of concert music, including Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

, Catherine Comet

Catherine Comet

Catherine Comet is a French-born American conductor who was the music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony and the American Symphony Orchestra. She received the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award in 1988.-External links:*...

, David Zinman

David Zinman

David Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.After early violin studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota and took up conducting at Tanglewood...

, Leonard Slatkin

Leonard Slatkin

Leonard Edward Slatkin is an American conductor and composer.-Early life and education:Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His father Felix Slatkin was the violinist, conductor and founder of the Hollywood String Quartet,...

, Chen Yi

Chen Yi (composer)

Chen Yi is a Chinese composer of contemporary classical music. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She is also a violinist....

, Frederick Fennell

Frederick Fennell

Frederick Fennell was an internationally recognized conductor, and one of the primary figures in promoting the wind ensemble as a performing group. He was also influential as a band pedagogue, and greatly affected the field of music education in the USA and abroad...

, Norman Dello Joio

Norman Dello Joio

- Life :He was born Nicodemo DeGioio in New York City to Italian immigrants. He began his musical career as organist and choir director at the Star of the Sea Church on City Island in New York at age 14. His father was an organist, pianist, and vocal coach and coached many opera stars from the...

, Gunther Schuller

Gunther Schuller

Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...

, James Levine

James Levine

James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...

  and Ulysses Kay

Ulysses Kay

Ulysses Simpson Kay was an African American composer. His music is mostly neoclassical in style....

.

Presidents

• Harold Farberman
  Harold Farberman
  Harold Farberman is an American conductor, composer, and percussionist.-Biography:Farberman studied percussion at Juilliard and composition at the New England Conservatory and at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland...
  
   (1975–1979)
• Charles A. Ansbacher (1979–1981, 1986)
• Maurice Peress (1981–1983)
• Donald Portnoy (1983–1986)
• Samuel Jones
  Samuel Jones (composer)
  Samuel Jones is an American composer and conductor.-Biography:Samuel Jones, a native of Mississippi , graduated from the Central High School in Jackson and received his undergraduate degree with highest honors at Millsaps College. He acquired his professional training at the Eastman School of...
  
  (1987–1988)
• Evan Whallon (1989–1990)
• Michael Charry (1991–1992)
• Larry Newland (1993–1994)
• Adrian Gnam (1995–1996)
• Barbara Schubert (1997–1998)
• Wes Kenney (1999–2000)
• Harlan Parker (2001–2002)
• Emily Freeman Brown (2003–2004)
• Tonu Kalam (2005–2006)
• Sandra Dackow (2007–2008)
• Michael Griffith (2009–2010)

External links

• Conductors Guild official site
• Conductors Guild Records, 1975-1997 Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.