Christopher Lyndon-Gee was nominated for Grammys in 1998 for Best Orchestral Performance for the groundbreaking complete works of Igor Markevitch (Marco Polo), in 2003 for the world première recording of George Rochberg’s Symphony No. 5 on Naxos American Classics, and again in 2007 for Hans Werner Henze’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 3, with Peter Sheppard Skærved. In 2001–2002 recordings for Naxos of Arcana and other works by Varèse, with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra received acclaimed notices worldwide, while The Gramophone, Fanfare, Classics Today and Penguin Guide to Compact Discs have all recognised his work, the last with numerous Rosettes and a Key Recordings listing. Australian critics’ organizations named him Artist of the Year and Best Opera Conductor, the latter for his conducting of the world première of Larry Sitsky’s The Golem at Sydney Opera House. He has also won the Pizzicato prize in Luxembourg.
Acclaimed recent releases include George Rochberg’s Symphony No. 1 in its première recording (Naxos 8.559214); volume 2 of the complete works of Edgard Varèse (8.557882), including the massive original version of Amériques, for an orchestra of 155 players; and the completion of the Markevitch complete works project, the oratorio Le Paradis perdu, released in 2008.
Also a widely performed composer, Lyndon-Gee was awarded a prestigious composition prize by the Onassis Foundation, Athens, in 2001. He has won the Adolf Spivakovsky Prize, the Sounds Australian Award (three times), and two MacDowell Fellowships. In 2006, his setting from Dante’s Paradiso, ‘Frammento del Dante’, was premièred in Florence by the Echo-Klassiek prize-winning German ensemble SingerPur; Musik für SaitenInstrumente has had recent performances in several countries (including Vladivostock, in far eastern Russia); and ‘Over Litton’, after a poem of Edward Storey, was premièred in Wales as a 25th anniversary Presteigne Festival Commission before being taken up widely in New York, Australia and elsewhere. In progress are forthcoming commissions of a set of songs for Lute and Tenor voice, Lieder des Morgensterns; a new work for SingerPur on a text from Milton; a String Quartet; a second string orchestra work for the German conductor Eckart Schloifer, ‘…und unter den Blättern saß Er, weinend’; a work for ‘Harpsichord Unlimited’ in New York, Etudes canoniques; and a Symphony respectfully dedicated to the aboriginal heritage of Australia, Symphony of Dreamtime. During 2003 his setting of an ancient Greek Ode under the title The Temple of Athena Pronaea had its première in New York. In the same week, On the Theory of Cosmic Strings received its première by Peter Sheppard Skærved at the Odense Festival, Denmark, and has since been performed over fifty times.
In 2004 he co-ordinated eight composers (including himself) to set the work of the American poet laureate William Meredith in honour of Meredith’s 85th birthday, for a “Songbook” recital that toured worldwide in more than 22 performances. A 25th Anniversary Presteigne Festival Commission, Over Litton, after a poem of Edward Storey, had its première in 2007. He was co-founder with composer Lorenzo Ferrero of the Ensemble Fase Seconda, who premièred dozens of commissioned new works throughout Italy, Germany, France and at many international festivals.
Lyndon-Gee studied under Arthur Hutchings and Rudolf Schwartz in Great Britain, Franco Ferrara and Goffredo Petrassi in Italy, Igor Markevitch at Monte Carlo, and Luciano Berio, Sylvano Bussotti and Jean Martinon. Hearing him conduct a student concert in Rome, Leonard Bernstein invited him to Tanglewood, where he met Bruno Maderna, becoming the latter’s assistant in Milan. Erich Leinsdorf and Maurice Abravanel were also influential on his work. He enjoyed a busy early career as pianist, specialising in contemporary repertoire; over 200 new works were written for him, by composers such as Oliver Knussen, Jonathan Lloyd, Nicola LeFanu, David Bedford, Mauro Cardi, Ada Gentile, Silvano Bussotti and many more. Since 2005, he has conducted regularly at the prestigious Warsaw Autumn Festival; at the 2007 Jubilee Fiftieth Anniversary Festival, he conducted four world premières by distinguished Polish, Lithuanian and Slovakian composers; in late 2006 he led the closing concert of the eight-day Festival entirely devoted to the works of leading Polish composer Paweł Szymaski. As Music Director of the Adelphi Symphony based on Long Island, New York, he has gathered an orchestra of predominantly Russian and Ukrainian expatriate musicians, in programmes featuring music of Peteris Vasks, Louis Andriessen, Alfred Schnittke, Joanne Metcalf, Sidney Boquiren, Arvo Pärt and rare American performances of works such as Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 ‘Babi Yar’, Messiaen’s Trois Petites Liturgies, Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, as well as many new works. He serves also as Chair of the Music Department at New York’s Adelphi University. His hectic freelance career includes regular visits to orchestras in Germany, Poland, Italy, England, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Russia and several other countries.
Christopher Lyndon-Gee was recently honoured as one of only three hundred conductors included in Naxos’s 600-page book and CD compilation The A to Z of Conductors (8.558087–90), covering the entire history of the art-form from Hans von Bülow and Arthur Nikisch to the present day.
