Michael Gerdes

Email

Primary Email: [email protected]

Phone/Fax

Office Phone: 619-594-4681

Building/Location

Music - 222

Bio

Minnesota-born Michael Gerdes works each season with the next generation of musicians and music teachers at San Diego State University as Director of Orchestral Studies. A conductor, performer, and educator, Gerdes has spent the last decade of his life working to build the program at San Diego State University into a thriving community of orchestral music and musicians. Under his direction, that program has doubled in size and expanded the number of orchestral ensembles and performances. His alumni teach and perform across the world from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to the Armenian National Opera. His performances have been hailed as “highly sensitive and thoughtfully layered” and his conducting proclaimed “refined, dynamically nuanced” and “restrained but unmistakably lucid” by the San Diego Story.

Gerdes served as Assistant Conductor of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, and guest conducts the ensemble regularly. He has held positions with the Los Angeles Conducting Institute, San Diego Pro Arte Voices, and BRAVO International Music Academy. An enthusiastic advocate for the continued evolution of orchestral repertoire, Michael’s performances have included premieres of major works by Vivian Fung, Richard Thompson, Jocelyn Hagen, Steven Bryant, John Mackey, Texu Kim, Benjamin Taylor, Alex Stephenson, Gabriel DeGuzman, John Hilliard, Brent Dutton, Liviu Marinescu, Jason Haney, Joseph Waters, and Carl Holmquist.

Winner of the 2022 Richard Levin Orchestra Educator Award, He is fortunate to work with young musicians all over the United States and recently led over 1,000 student musicians (in a professional hockey stadium) at the South Dakota All-State Orchestra and Chorus. He was honored to lead the California Orchestra Director’s All-State Orchestra and he has directed the honor orchestras of San Marcos, Capistrano, Alpine Valley, Grossmont, Sweetwater along with groups sponsored by the California Music Educators Association, Southern California Band and Orchestra Directors Association All-Southern, and San Diego Unified. Gerdes has conducted youth orchestras from Shanghai, China to Fairfax, Virginia. 

Off the podium, Gerdes serves on the Board of the Musical Merit Foundation, working to provide scholarships to students that demonstrate exceptional achievement in musical performance. He also is a consistent lecturer to audiences at the La Jolla Music Society and Summerfest guest orchestra, piano, and chamber music performances. Although Gerdes has worked with orchestras in Asia, Europe, and across the United States, he is happiest when making music in his adopted home of San Diego where he can spend time with his wife Abbie, his daughter Cecilia, and his dog Wally.

Education

• MM, James Madison University
• BM, Music Education, cum laude, Concordia College
• BA, Philosophy, Concordia College