Hailed as a “young titan” by a Montreal newspaper, Gregory Vajda has fast become one of the most sought-after conductors on the international scene. After completing his tenure as assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2005, Vajda took over as resident conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra at the start of the 2005-06 season. Prior to his appointment with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, he served as founder and artistic advisor of the Valley of the Arts Summer Festival in Hungary, permanent guest conductor of the Hungarian State Opera (1998-2003), principal conductor of the Ernö Dohnányi Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, and a member of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra.

During the 2005-06 season, Vajda returned to the Winnipeg and Omaha symphony orchestras, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the Hungarian Radio Orchestra. These performances were in addition to his regular performances with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2006, he conducted Les Violons du Roy, the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center and returned to the Round Top Festival in Texas, Milwaukee Symphony and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at Lanaudiere Festival. In the 2006-07 season, he conducts Charlotte Symphony, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony and Atlanta Opera (Romeo & Juliette).

Season highlights of 2004-05 included Vajda’s third appearance with Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris and Brussels, and debut appearances with the Winnipeg, Omaha, and Louisville symphony orchestras. He also led the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a subscription concert series, and was commissioned to compose and conduct a piece for the Making New Waves Festival in Budapest. In the summer of 2005, Vajda appeared at the Round Top Festival in Texas (where he returns in 2006 and 2007), and returned to both the Naumburg Orchestral Concert Series in New York’s Central Park and the Woodstock Mozart Festival in Illinois.

While assistant conductor with the Milwaukee Symphony, Vajda led several regional tours and had opportunities to conduct the Canadian Brass, Maureen McGovern, the King Singers, as well as the Milwaukee Symphony in a yearly classical subscription series. In past seasons, he appeared with St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Ensemble Intercontemporain, led the Klangforum Vienna in performances of Péter Eötvös’ As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams and Three Sisters (as part of the Vienna Festwochen), gave the premiere of his chamber opera The Giantbaby at the New Theatre in Budapest, and the premiere of Hungarian composer György Ránki’s opera King Pomade’s New Clothes at the Hungarian State Opera. He has also conducted at the festivals of Avignon and Strassbourg, at the Woodstock Mozart Festival and at the Mostly Mozart Festival in Lincoln Center.

In addition to conducting, Vajda is also a clarinetist and composer. Recently, he conducted his own composition for the silent film The Crowd at the Auditorium of the Louvre, with American pianist Jay Gottlieb. He has also recorded his own orchestral piece entitled Duevoe with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was honored with the Zoltán Kodály State Scholarship for composers for the year 2000, and the Annie Fischer State Scholarship for music performers in the year 1999.

Born in 1973 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of renowned soprano Veronika Kincses, Gregory Vajda studied clarinet and composition at the Béla Bartók secondary school. He then studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under Professor Ervin Lukács. He was also a conducting pupil of the well-known twentieth-century composer and conductor, Péter Eötvös.