John Gordon Ross

Conductor & Music Director, Western Piedmony Symphony
Conductor & Music Director , Western Piedmony Symphony
Instrumental Conducting & Music History

Education

B.M, Ball State University
M.M., Northwestern University, Evanston

Background

John Gordon Ross serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Western Piedmont Symphony. His first orchestral opportunities came as Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra (1972-74) the Canton Symphony Orchestra and Youth Symphony (1974-75) and the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra (1973-1979). In recent years he has returned to Ohio to lead the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lima Symphony, and the Blue Ash Symphony. He also served as Music Director and Conductor of the Kingsport (TN) Symphony Orchestra from 1981-1991.

Born in the small town of Selma, Indiana in 1951, John Gordon Ross received a B.M. from Ball State University and a M.M. from Northwestern University and also attended the Cleveland Institute of Music. His conducting teachers were Robert Hargreaves, Thomas Briccetti, and Walter Hendl. He also benefited from the knowledge and experience of his long-term mentor Robert Marcellus, former Principal Clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra and a noted conductor. He has also been a participating conductor in the master classes of Pierre Boulez and Victor Yampolsky.

He is still semi-active as a trombonist and is the 2nd Trombone of the Lakeside Summer Symphony (1979-) in Lakeside, Ohio and regularly performs in North Carolina. He has taught instrumental conducting at Middle Tennessee State University and Lenoir-Rhyne University as a guest faculty member and other courses at King College. He held the title of Artist in Residence at Cleveland State University from 1977-79. He has also regularly conducted educational festivals in Tennessee and North Carolina and served as guest conductor of the Tennessee Governor's School of the Arts Orchestra on three occasions.

John Gordon Ross, has a strong record of presenting and supporting living composers. This season he will present local premieres by Robert Ward and Jeffrey Mumford, as well as works by George Walker, Henry Brant, and David Stern. He has conducted over 500 orchestral and small orchestra works, including over 30 world premieres.

He is married to cellist and award-winning educator Sarah Rocco Ross. They are parents to Gracie, a two-year-old cockapoo. Both hold numerous volunteer roles in the Hickory community. John is a member of the Hickory Rotary Club, tutors at two elementary schools each week, and sings tenor in the Episcopal Church of the Ascension Choir. John also loves travel, history, and sports; approaching his 52nd birthday, he continues to work out regularly in hopes of defying gravity and postponing the inevitable.