Andrew Grams is in his third season as Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra/American Symphony Orchestra League Conducting Fellow, having been appointed to the post by Franz Welser-Möst in June 2004. As an Assistant Conductor, Mr. Grams assists Mr. Welser-Möst, participates in the planning and conducting of education concerts, and serves as cover conductor for Severance Hall subscription concerts and Blossom Festival concerts. He has conducted the Orchestra in portions of subscription concerts at Severance Hall and at the 2005 and 2006 Blossom Festivals. In November, he will lead the Orchestra in a week of subscription concerts featuring Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”).
A Maryland native, Andrew Grams began conducting at 17, when he led the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. In 1999 he received a bachelor of music degree in violin performance from The Juilliard School of Music, where he was a student of Stephen Clapp, and in 2003 he received a conducting degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, where he worked with Otto-Werner Mueller. Mr. Grams spent the summers of 2003 and 2004 studying with David Zinman, Murry Sidlin, and Michael Stern at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival.
As a conductor, Mr. Grams has worked with the orchestras of Delaware, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Saint Louis, and other ensembles. From 2002 to 2004, he was assistant conductor of the Reading Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania. lso an accomplished violinist, Mr. Grams was a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra at Lincoln Center from 1998 to 2004, serving as acting associate principal second violin in 2002 and 2004. He has performed with a variety of other orchestral ensembles including the Brooklyn Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. During the fall of 2005, he played in The Cleveland Orchestra's second violin section for performances of Messiaen's Turangalîla–symphonie, in Severance Hall and on tour in Luxembourg and Vienna.
