Victoria Bond
American conductor and composer Victoria Bond was born in Los Angeles on 6 May 1945 into a musical family. She studied at UCLA, the University of Southern California and at Juilliard, where in 1977 she was the first woman to receive a doctorate in orchestral conducting. She also studied with Herbert von Karajan and Herbert Blomstedt and worked as an assistant to Pierre Boulez, Mstislav Rostropovich and Aaron Copland.
She began her professional career as a soprano, but has since held a series of conducting appointments, and was the first American woman to conduct and record in China. She is artistic director of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York, which she founded in 1998.
As a composer her output includes the operas Mrs President, Clara, The Adventures of Gulliver, The Miracle of Light, Sirens and Travels, the oratorio The Reluctant Moses and a series of other works.
Further information: victoriabond.com