MAURICE PERESS was described as "A Master" on the occasion of his performances as music director of the premiere presentation of Leonard Bernstein's Mass!, the work chose n to inaugurate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC in September 1971. There was, in fact, universal agreement on the brilliant conducting of this New York born musician who was the composer's personal choice. Hardly a surprising choice, for Maurice Peress is one of America's most dynamic and versatile conductors. From Vienna to Hong Kong, he is internationally recognized by critics and audiences. He conducted the New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera and ten years later, he led the European premiere of Mass! In the Vienna Opera House to rhapsodic praise from the host of European critics in attendance.

Since being selected as an assistant co nductor for the New York Philharmonic by Leonard Bernstein, Maurice Peress has led three American orchestras, his last post being the Kansas City Philharmonic. During his twenty seasons as a Music Director Peress worked with major artists from Yo Yo Ma to Perlman, Andre Watts to Garrick Ohlsson, Alan Titus to Jessye Norman, and the Modern Jazz Quartet to John Faddis' Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.

Maestro Peress has conducted over twenty operas including Tristan, von Einum's The Visit for the San Francisco Opera, and Candide at the Los Angeles Music Center, the Ravinia Festival, and at Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center) . In 1996, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor and Musical Advisor for Shanghai's Broadcast Symphony Orchestra.

For the past ten seasons, Maurice Peress has made his home in New York City where he is on the faculty of the Aaron Copland School of Music. His guest conducting appearances have included the Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Utah, Cleveland and Houston Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestra of Saint Luke's and the American Composers Orchestra, the latter two in Carnegie Hall, the Bergamo/Brescia Festival, the Orchestra Santa Cecilia of Rome. In addition to appearances at the aforementioned Ravinia Festival, he has appeared with the Prague Philharmonic for its Spring Festival, Italy's RAI Uno Gershwin Festival, and the Hong Kong and Melbourne Festivals.

In the summer of 1989, Maestro Peress researched and produced for Carnegie Hall a festival of three historic concerts: the first all black musical event in the Hall, The Clef Club concert of 1912; George Antheil's Ballet Mecanique concert of 1927; and Duke Ellington's Black Brown and Beige concert of 1943. During the past decade he made six unusual recordings for the Music Masters/Musical Heritage Society label and two for National Public Radio, the last, entitled "Mostly Morton," being a tribute to Morton Gould on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Maurice Peress began reconstructing concerts from American music history in 1984, the first of which was the 1924 Aeolian Hall Concert at which Gershwin first played his Rhapsody in Blue. This was presented at New York's Town Hall...same day, hour, block...just sixty years later to a sell-out crowd. For the American Music Theater Festival based in Philadelphia, Peress reconstructed and developed Gershwin's Strike Up the Band and Ellington's Queenie Pie. He has edited and/or orchestrated five of Ellington's symphonic works.

His research in American music has made Peress a leading authority on Antonin Dvorak's American period and has initiated invitations to give concerts and lectures throughout the USA, Germany and the Czech Republic. In 1997, he was invited to conduct the Brno Philharmonic in Smetana's monumental tone poem Ma Vlast in Prague's Zofin Hall where it received its premiere in 1879. His television documentary, Dvorak in America, has been produced for eventual release on Czech television and on PBS-TV here in the USA. His soon to be published book for the Oxford University Press is called Living with American Music: From Dvorak to Duke Ellington.

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