The Music Conservatory

James Gandre, Dean
The Music Conservatory Faculty

James Gandre has appeared as a soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, London Classical Players, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, at the Pepsico Summerfare in New York, and with members of the San Francisco Symphony in annual Messiah performances. His professional choral engagements include more than 175 performances with the New York Philharmonic, Aix-en-Provence Festival (France), Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, London Classical Players, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (The Netherlands), Israel Philharmonic, Warsaw Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, American Symphony, Opera Orchestra of New York, Voices of Ascension, and more than 20 commercial recordings and television appearances on EMI/Angel, EMI/Capital, Teldec, Delos, MusicMaster, Warner records, and on ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS-TV. In these performances, he has worked under such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Sir Colin Davis, James Levine, Mstislav Rostropovich, Riccardo Chailly, Robert Shaw, Edo de Waart, Christopher Hogwood, Roger Norrington, Eduardo Mata, John Nelson, Carlos Kalmar and Giuseppe Patane.

As Dean at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, he oversees a faculty of 100 and a student body of 550 students who come from more than 40 states and more than 25 countries, and he teaches a voice performance for freshmen and sophomores. From 1985 to 2000 Dr. Gandre worked at Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he was most recently Dean of Enrollment and Alumni and where he taught the vocal performance course Preparation and Presentation.

He was a writer/consultant for the Peterson’s Guides publication, Professional Degree Programs in the Visual and Performing Arts, and served as the first Chairperson of the Advisory Committee for National Performing and Visual Arts College Fairs presented by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). He is also a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammys). Dr. Gandre has presented his lecture, Résumés, Photos and Other Necessities, at numerous colleges and universities throughout the country, including Curtis Institute of Music, Stanford University, New England Conservatory, Oberlin College, University of Michigan, Peabody Conservatory, Mannes College of Music, and the National Orchestra Institute at the University of Maryland.

He serves on the boards of both the Grant Park Music Festival and The Choir Academy, a charter school of the Chicago Public School system, and served on the Board of Visitors at the Walnut Hill School in Massachusetts from 1997-2002 and again from 2003-present. He is currently a Regional Selector for the Alberto Vilar Global Fellowship in the Performing Arts at New York University.

A Wisconsin native, Dr. Gandre earned his Bachelor of Music degree with honors from Lawrence University, a Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and his Doctor of Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The Music Conservatory The Faculty CCPA Board

James Gandre, Dean

Joined CCPA in 2000