Gregory Oh

Canadian pianist and conductor Gregory Oh has always had commitment issues, and believes firmly in keeping his options open. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Toronto, where he completed his studies with Marietta Orlov as the top graduating pianist, and the University of Michigan, where he worked with Martin Katz. He has premiered over a hundred works by composers all over the world, and has given recitals throughout North America and Europe.

A Dora-nominated music director, he most recently worked on John Beckwith’s Crazy to Kill (2011) and on the premieres of Cold Spring at New York’s EMPAC (2011) and Native Earth’s Giiwedin (2010) as well as XXX Live Nude Girls! (2009) in the Summerworks Festival, and has also worked at San Diego Opera, the Canadian Opera Company and Florida State Opera, the University of Michigan Opera Program, Michigan Opera Works, Tapestry New Opera, Autumn Leaf and Lyric Opera San Diego. He has held faculty positions at the Banff Centre for the Arts, both in Music and Sound, and Theatre Arts, where he worked with the Contemporary Opera and Song Training Program.

He is the artistic director of the highly acclaimed new music group Toca Loca with Simon Docking and Aiyun Huang, and “is clearly on his way, through performances, commissioning and programming, to making a lasting contribution to new music in this country.” (National Post – Canada). He is a guest conductor of Continuum Contemporary Music, CONTACT and Arraymusic, and has also conducted the McGill Percussion Ensemble, the CBC Kieser Gala and Companion Star in Sweden. As the keyboardist in uberband The Lollipop People he has played Pop Montreal, NXNE, Wavelength, Canadian Music Week, Galapagos, the Guelph Folk Festival, Suoni per il popolo and the Brampton Indie Arts Festival. He regularly tours with cabaret performer Patricia O’Callaghan all over North America.

With Akemi and Rachel Mercer, he has performed the entire cycle of Haydn’s Piano Trios for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society. He teaches at the University of Toronto and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and is the contemporary music curator at Toronto’s Music Gallery. A resident artist of Soulpepper Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, he is also the artistic director of the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener, Ontario. He spends his spare time trying to fix his bike and watching bad television.