Conductor Gary Thor Wedow has established an enviable reputation for dramatically exciting and historically informed performances with opera companies, orchestras, festivals, and choral organizations throughout North America. Opera News has hailed him for his “hot music making” and “convincingly elegant period style.” His debut with the New York Philharmonic conducting Messiah was noted in the New York Times for ‘a fleet, lithe orchestral performance, aptly complemented by the buoyant singing of the chorus.’
Upcoming during the 2026-2027 season, Maestro Wedow continues his association with The Juilliard School, conducting their fall undergraduate opera production. He also joins Oberlin Conservatory for Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, San Diego Opera for Le nozze di Figaro, North Carolina Opera for Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and Portland Baroque for Handel’s Messiah.
Last season, Wedow led productions of La Cenerentola with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Arizona Opera and returned to Opera Omaha for Il barbiere di Siviglia. In concert, he conducted Handel’s Messiah with the Winston-Salem Mozart Club. Maestro Wedow’s engagements during the 2024-2025 season included Mozart's masterpiece Le nozze di Figaro with Palm Beach Opera, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music for the same composer's La finta giardiniera, and a return to the Santa Fe Symphony for Handel’s Messiah.
Recent notable engagements include Handel’s Teseo and Atalanta with The Juilliard School, Opera Philadelphia for Semele and Lembit Beecher’s War Stories, Seattle Opera for La Cenerentola, Opera Omaha for Don Pasquale, Des Moines Metro Opera for Il barbiere di Siviglia, Pittsburgh Opera for Don Pasquale, L’incoronazione di Poppea with Rice University, and also with Cincinnati Opera (starring Anthony Roth Costanzo), his debuts with San Diego Opera conducting Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Orphée for Des Moines Metro Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor and Die Fledermaus with Utah Opera, Opera Southwest for their Spanish language version of Carmen, The Magic Flute for Madison Opera and a special collaboration between The Juilliard School and the Westminster Choir College of Mozart’s Requiem at Alice Tully Hall.
Handel’s Messiah is frequently on his schedule with recent engagements at Nashville Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Portland Baroque, the Santa Fe Symphony and a special performance at St. Thomas Church that the New York Times called “a war horse of a different, brighter color, with mighty crescendos and exquisite pianissimos, and guilty pleasures.”
A favorite with Seattle Opera audiences, Wedow has also been a frequent guest of Florida Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Arizona Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Portland Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Berkshire Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Saratoga, and the Amherst Early Music Festival, among others. He was for many years associated with New York City Opera, leading the New York premiere of Telemann’s Orpheus, the groundbreaking Christopher Alden productions of Don Giovanni and Stephen Wadsworth’s Xerxes.
Choral masterpieces and symphonic repertoire have taken him to the podiums of the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, The Alabama Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Berkshire Choral International in Massachusetts, New Mexico, California and in Salzburg, and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society where he was, for many years, Associate Conductor.
Born in LaPorte, Indiana and now a resident of New York City, he has been a member of the Juilliard School faculty since 1994 where he has led performances of L’incoronazione di Poppea, La finta giardiniera, Ariodante and Don Giovanni. Of particular note was the tour of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Juilliard 415 Historical Performance Ensemble that culminated at Alice Tully Hall ‘in a performance that caught fire and magic’ according to the New York Times. His continued championship of young musicians and singers is further exemplified by projects at The Teatro Colón, Wolf Trap Opera, the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. A musical scholar as well as conductor, he has prepared several performing editions of baroque works in collaboration with gambist Lawrence Lipnik. Mr. Wedow studied piano with virtuoso Jorge Bolet at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University and received his Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory.
