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Gerard Chiusano
Conductor
 







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Maestro Gerard Chiusano was born in Belleville, New Jersey.He began piano studies at the age of four. Teachers include Thomas Parente (Montclair State University), Richard Fabre (The Juilliard School), and John MacArthur (Manhattan School of Music). He studied composition with Craig Shuler (Juilliard), David Loeb (Mannes), David Noon (Manhattan), and conducting with Roger Nierenberg (Juilliard) and Giampaolo Braccali (Manhattan).
His professional worked has spanned genres from television and theatre to sacred music. Such work includes New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, as assistant conductor to Emmy Award-winning director Andrew Carl Wilk, Massachusetts’ North Shore MusicTheater, and the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut, as well as Princess Cruises, Ltd., and has also served as pianist/conductor for the past original off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks. Mr. Chiusano was co-musical director of Heart’s Desire, by Emmy Award-winning conductor and composer Glenn Roven.He has worked with such celebrities as Robby Benson, Nancy Dussault and Karen Morrow. He orchestrated and conducted the musical Green Gables by Cincinnati composers Mark Friedman and Janet Vogt in Dayton, Ohio. His work in music for television has included work for National Geographic Television. He has also made several appearances on Sounds from the Spires, on Sirius/XM’s The Catholic Channel, hosted by Dr. Jennifer Pascual, Music Director of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
Maestro Chiusano holds a bachelor degree in music (Thomas Edison State University) and a masters in theology (Saint Elizabeth University), and is pursuing a Ph.D in music composition at Rutgers University in the studio of Grammy Award-winning opera composer Robert Livingston Aldridge.
In 1988 he made his debut at Alice Tully Hall as pianist and organist for Mass by Leonard Bernstein, and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2011, performing with fellow sacred composer John Angotti.
In 2010 he founded The Chamber Orchestra of Saint Luke in Toms River, New Jersey, serving as Music Director and Conductor until 2016. In 2017 he founded Opus 1 Singers and Orchestra, for which he serves as Music Director.
As a composer Mr. Chiusano has dedicated much time to the world of opera, having composed two full- length works, both Shakespeare adaptations: Antony & Cleopatra and Macbeth, both with libretti by Gene Tyburn of Santa Barbara, California. His Antony & Cleopatra was awarded the 2004 John E. Profant Award for Excellence in the Arts, given in Santa Barbara, California. His sacred music is published by OCP of Portland, Oregon, G.I.A. Publications, and World Library Publications, both of Chicago, Illinois, and Lorenz Co. of Dayton, Ohio. With his wife and lyricist, Mary, his most recent sacred collection is Waiting for Love, published by OCP. The recording features Jess LeProtto (Newsies; Cats), Heather Tepe (Gypsy [revival with Bernadette Peters]; Matilda) and Mandy Bruno (The Young and the Restless; Young Frankenstein: The Musical; Les Miserables [2008 revival]).


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