| Michael Repper | |
| Landscape: | no |
| Background: | non_performing_personnel |
| Birth Date: | 25 September 1990 |
| Birth Place: | Orange, California |
| Genre: | Classical |
| Occupation: | Conductor |
| Instrument: | Piano |
| Associated Acts: | New York Youth Symphony
|
Michael Repper (born September 25, 1990) is an orchestral conductor, the youngest American to win the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.[1] [2] He is the music director of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and was the Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony until 2023. There, he became the only conductor to have ever led a youth orchestra to a Grammy Award.[3] He was the conducting fellow of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2016.[4]
Repper was born in Orange, California to Claudia Gold Repper, an emergency physician, and David Repper. He graduated from the Orange County School of the Arts in 2008,[5] and received a Bachelors of Arts (2012) and Masters of Arts in music (2013) from Stanford University.[6] In 2022, he graduated from the Peabody Conservatory of Music as a Doctor of Musical Arts, a student of Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier.[7]
Repper grew up in Orange County, California and attended the Pacific Symphony's family concerts with his grandmother, where he was inspired to take piano lessons.[8] He was invited to study piano in Melbourne, Australia with Nehama Patkin when he was 8 years old,[9] and it was in Australia that he conducted an orchestra for the first time.[10] After he returned to the United States when he was 9, he began to study conducting formally with Marin Alsop.[11] After attending Stanford University, Michael attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Gustav Meier and served as the Assistant Conductor of the Peabody Orchestras and Choruses. He was also the Conducting Fellow of the Baltimore Symphony.[12]
In 2016, Repper became the 17th music director of the New York Youth Symphony, which performs at Carnegie Hall.[13] Under his direction, the New York Youth Symphony earned international honors, winning a Classical Digital Award in 2020[14] and the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance in 2023, becoming the first youth orchestra in history to achieve this recognition.[15] [16]
Repper became the music director of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra and the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in 2022.[17] [18] He is regularly seen as a guest conductor in the United States and around the world.
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Best Orchestral Performance | Works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, Valerie Coleman | [22] | ||