Judith Clurman

Judith Clurman is an Emmy and Grammy nominated conductor, vocal educator, and choral specialist. She is currently music director and conductor of Essential Voices USA, which collaborates with the New York Pops on their Carnegie Hall subscription series and produces “The Composer Speaks” series. Her chorus has had a residency with National Public Radio and performed in NBC’s Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting and Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular. Judith has collaborated with renowned orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Mostly Mozart Festival, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Omaha Symphony. She has commissioned, premiered, and recorded works by over fifty prolific American composers, including Milton Babbitt, William Bolcom, Jason Robert Brown, Marvin Hamlisch, Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Andrew Lippa, Nico Muhly, Christopher Rouse, and Stephen Schwartz, and has conducted U.S. premieres of the music of Philip Glass, Rossini, and Wagner.

She served as Director of Choral Activities at the Juilliard School from 1989 to 2007; as Co-director of Harvard University’s Leonard Bernstein: Boston to Broadway Festival; faculty member and vocal specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts/Columbia University Institute of Classical Music; Visiting Artist at Cambridge University, Janáček Academy, Curtis Institute of Music, and the Lewis Center at Princeton University; and Associate Music Director for the Emmy-nominated season 39 of Sesame Street. Her students are conducting and appearing on Broadway and in opera houses throughout the world.

Judith Clurman edits choral editions for G. Schirmer, Schott, and Hal Leonard and is a member of ASCAP, ASCAP’s Special Classification Committee, the Grammy Membership Committee, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She studied at Oberlin College and holds degrees in voice from the Juilliard School. She studied conducting with Jorge Mester. Judith conducted the ensemble in the nationally televised Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting and Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular.