Victoria Bond
Biography
Victoria Bond (b. 6 May 1945, Los Angeles, Calif.) is an American composer.
Dr. Bond studied at the University of Southern California (Bachelor of Music, 1968), and the Juilliard School of Music (Master of Music, 1975; Doctor of Musical Arts, 1977). She is the first woman awarded a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School. Among her teachers were Ingolf Dahl, Roger Sessions, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Slatkin, and Pierre Boulez.
Dr. Bond has had a successful career as a conductor, championing works by women composers. A major force in 21st century music, she is known for her melodic gift and dramatic flair. Her works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and opera have been lauded by the New York Times as "powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding."
In addition to Soul of a Nation, the four presidential portraits, highlights of Ms. Bond’s catalogue include the operas Mrs. President, Clara and The Miracle of Light; ballets Equinox and Other Selves; orchestral works Thinking like a Mountain, Bridges and Urban Bird; and chamber works Dreams of Flying, Frescoes and Ash and Instruments of Revelation, among many others. Her compositions have been performed by the New York City Opera, Shanghai, Dallas and Houston Symphonies, members of the Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic, American Ballet Theater and the Cassatt and Audubon Quartets.
She has served as principal guest conductor of Chamber Opera Chicago since 2005. Prior positions include assistant conductor of Pittsburgh Symphony and New York City Opera and music director of the Roanoke Symphony and Opera, Bel Canto Opera and Harrisburg Opera. Ms. Bond has guest conducted throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia.
Dr. Bond is the recipient of the Victor Herbert Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Walter Hinrichsen Award, the Perry F. Kendig Award and the Miriam Gideon Prize. She has been awarded honorary doctorates from Hollins and Roanoke Colleges, and Washington and Lee University, and was voted Woman of the Year, Virginia in 1990 and 1991. Following her graduation from The Juilliard School, she was selected as the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony by Andre Previn.
Bond is artistic director of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York, which she founded in 1998, and is a frequent lecturer at the Metropolitan Opera and has lectured for the New York Philharmonic. The Wall Street Journal, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times and other national publications have profiled Ms. Bond.
Works for Winds
- The Crowded Hours
- The Frog Prince
- How Br’er Raccoon Outsmarted the Frogs
- The Indispensable Man (2010)
- Pater Patriae
- White on Black
Resources
- Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. "Victoria Bond." Accessed 11 March 2020
- Victoria Bond, personal correspondence, March 2020
- Victoria Bond website Accessed 11 March 2020