Gemma New. Photo: Fred Stucker.
New Zealand conductor Gemma New has just been announced as Music Director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra in Ontario, Canada.
It’s a remarkable achievement for a 28 year-old from the other side of the world to enter the realm of Maestros, and even more astonishing considering that around 90% of North America’s orchestras are led by males, according to the League of American Orchestras.
It’s a grand new step for me and my career… I’ve just fallen into the lottery it seems!
Wellington-raised Gemma graduated from Canterbury University as a violinist, before completing a Masters of Music in conducting, at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore.
She cut her teeth at the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra where she holds the post of Associate Conductor and is also the 2014/2015 Dudamel Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, working under the mentorship of superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
Gemma manages to make to home occasionally too, working with orchestras including the NZSO, Opus Orchestra and the Christchurch Youth Orhcestra.
