Above: Judith Clurman and members of EVUSA at the NPR studios, 2022.

Judith Clurman, Conductor

“Judith Clurman – the exceptional conductor”
— Time Out New York

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About Judith Clurman

As a conductor, chorus master, and educator, Judith Clurman has collaborated with some of the world’s most distinguished ensembles, composers, and institutions. A passionate advocate of new music and innovative programming, she has commissioned premieres, developed ensembles, and directed work from the classical, theatre, television, and film repertoires.

Judith is currently the musical director for Essential Voices USA (EVUSA), an ensemble that has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and on NPR’S Tiny Desk Concerts, and has recorded numerous CDs of newly commissioned works and holiday music. She has received two Emmy nominations, one for music direction and one for composition. She conducted Tania Léon’s music on the Grammy and Latin Grammy nominated CD, In Motion.

Above: Judith Clurman, conductor, rehearsal video with Essential Voices USA.

Judith has worked with many of the world’s finest symphonies, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St Luke’s, the American Composer’s Orchestra, and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. She previously conducted The New York Concert Singers, a group that appeared on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers, Live From Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall’s concert series. Highlights of her career include conducting at the Mozarteum Grosser Saal in Salzburg, conducting the nationally televised “Music of the Spirit” (NBC and PBS), conducting performances with the New York City Ballet and the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, supervising and conducting the choral music for the SONY movie The Song of Names, co-directing Harvard University’s “Bernstein: Boston to Broadway” project, music directing (associate) of all things vocal for the 39^th Season of Sesame Street, creating and conducting the Singing Christmas Tree Float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and conducting the nationally televised July 4^th Macy’s Fireworks Spectacular (NBC), with the Diva Jazz Orchestra. She is especially proud of her program as the conductor of the Carnegie Hall/Juilliard Sing-Alongs of the Mozart Requiem, for New York City, on the various anniversaries of 9/11, and when she served as music director of the Lincoln Center Holiday Tree Celebration, in which she worked with all the constituents of Lincoln Center, commissioned new works, collaborated with major soloists of the world, and invited over 15,000 school children from the tri-state area to sing under her direction.

*Above: Judith Clurman conducting EVUSA with the NY Pops at Carnegie Hall. Photo © Richard Termine, used with permission.*

*Above: Judith with composer Stephen Schwartz at rehearsal. Photo* *© Richard Termine, used with permission*.

“Working with Judith Clurman is always a delight. She’s so professional and such a superb musician, that I always know the end result will be incredible…a great thing for a composer to know.”
— Jennifer Higdon

Judith has conducted varied and rich repertoire, including the complete Mozart canons for Lincoln Center’s Mozart Bicentennial, which included World and US Premieres of the versions of the music that were found in Constanze Mozart’s edition of the music, the US Premiere of the original edition of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, the World Premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s arrangement of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and the US premiere of music by Phillip Glass, Arvo Paert, Ned Rorem, and Joby Talbot. She has commissioned and conducted new works by over seventy composers and librettists, including works by Samuel Adler, Tzvi Avni, Milton Babbitt, William Bolcom, Jason Robert Brown, Thomas Cabaniss, Shawn Crouch, Bill Cutter, Michael Gilbertson, Marvin Hamlisch, Sheldon Harnick, Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Rupert Homes, Pierre Jalbert, Katie Jenkins, Laura Karpman, Andrew Lippa, Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, Libby Larsen, Andrew Lippa, Tania Léon, David Ludwig, Ryan Nowlin, Paul Moravec, Nico Muhly, Stephen Paulus, Shulamit Ran, Joseph N. Rubinstein, Augusta Read Thomas, Joshua Schmidt, Maire-Claire Saindon, William Schermerhorn, Marc Shaiman, Howard Shore, Roberto Sierra, Mark Sirett, Stephen Schwartz, Georgia Stitt, Zachary Wadsworth, and Jesse Wiener.

*Above: WASHINGTON WOMEN with the The Celia Cruz Bronx High School for Music, 2023. Photo © Richard Termine, used with permission.*

“Over the years I have attended hundreds of performances of The Sound Of Music. Last month’s Salzburg performance was extraordinary. Ms. Clurman provided adroit musical direction. With vibrant integrity, Judith Clurman’s The Sound Of Music Suite was refreshingly expressive, wonderfully inventive and simply elegant.”
— Elisabeth Von Trapp

As an educator, Judith was Director of Choral Activities at The Juilliard School from 1989-2007, where she created and conducted the Juilliard Choral Union and taught conducting and vocal chamber music. She has served as a visiting artist/teacher at University of Cambridge, Curtis Institute of Music, Harvard University, Princeton University, the Janacek Academy, and Israel’s Zimriya Festival at Hebrew University. She was the vocal specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts/Columbia University Institute of Classical Music. She currently teaches voice at The Manhattan School of Music.

“The group sang with ravishing smoothness and warmth and with complete flexibility in dynamics and coloration.”
— The New York Times

Judith is a member of ASCAP, ASCAP’s Special Classification Committee, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She edits two choral series, with over 150 publications for Hal Leonard. Her own music and arrangements are published by G. Schirmer, Hal Leonard, and Schott, and have been performed by the Detroit, Houston, New Jersey, National, San Francisco, and Toronto Symphonies, and the Boston and New York Pops. Her works, “Eight Days of Lights” and “Washington Women,” are performed by choruses across our nation. Her ensembles can be heard on the Acis, Albany, Decca, Delos, New World labels, and Symphony Space labels.

Judith is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

“Clurman’s singers offer brilliantly rich sound, fluent musicality and sophisticated wide-ranging expression. The term virtuoso would be no hyperbole.”
— American Organist

“Clurman is an outstanding choral conductor.”
– New York Daily News