A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Michael Gilbert studied violin at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay. Since 2001, Mr. Gilbert has been the Music Director of the Music Masters Course in Kazusa (in Japan near Tokyo), a summer festival and music school, whose professors and students come together from Europe, Asia and the United States to study and perform chamber and orchestral music. Mr. Gilbert was also on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in the Orchestra Performance Study program.
Since his retirement from the New York Philharmonic after 30 years of service, he has been active as a conductor. Mr. Gilbert made his debut with the Kyoto Symphony in Japan in 2004 conducting the Mahler Symphony No.1 and returned the following year with the Bruckner Symphony No.4. He has coached the National Youth Orchestra of Spain a number of times and travels to La Coruna each year to conduct the Youth Orchestra of Galicia.
Before joining the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Gilbert served as concertmaster of San Antonio Symphony, the Santa Fe Opera, and the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. In the New York Philharmonic, he performed under such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Erich Leinsdorf, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur.
Mr. Gilbert is mentor to many conductors and students and shares his passion for music in teaching.