GEMS is excited to welcome Dominic Giardino as our new Executive Director!
He began on a part-time basis June 17 and will serve full-time beginning August 1. GEMS’ Founder and Chairman, Gene Murrow, said “Dom’s enthusiasm, experience in non-profit management and fundraising, success with digital media, significant achievements and innovations in our field, along with his great intelligence, outstanding people skills, stature as a period instrument performer, and warm personality will serve us well. I am very pleased with the prospects for GEMS in the future under his leadership.”
Dominic’s message to the GEMS community: “I am so excited to be joining a team that for the last twenty years has so brilliantly advocated for New York City’s deep and vibrant early music scene. Although I am a new New Yorker, I have already come to experience what this audience surely already knows — what makes our city so great is that it is a place of many voices, cultures, and expressions. It is no surprise that a genre as indefinably diverse as “early music” has enjoyed such a rich history here and continues to hold the center of gravity for our field in the United States. I am excited to discover together new ways we can build on this extraordinary legacy and how GEMS can continue fostering a community for all those who seek inspiration from sound worlds of the past. I look forward to meeting many of you throughout the coming season and hope you won’t be shy in sharing your thoughts and ideas along the way.”
More about Dominic Giardino
Dominic joins the staff of GEMS with more than a decade of experience in cultural stewardship as an administrator, musician, and public historian. Most recently, he served as Executive Director of Arizona Early Music, the Southwest’s only concert series dedicated to historically-informed performance. During his tenure, he expanded the organization’s concert and educational offerings throughout Southern Arizona and launched the Emerging Ensemble Residency — a competitive summer residency program designed to support the next generation of touring early music artists. An active advocate for the field, Dominic has served on voluntary artistic-planning committees for the Historical Keyboard Society of North America and the American Friends of Lafayette, and as Secretary of Early Music America’s Board of Directors.
As a clarinetist specializing in 18th- and 19th-century instruments, Dominic performs and teaches throughout North America and currently serves as Instructor of Historical Clarinets at the University of North Texas. His scholarly and performance interests led him to found Music of the Regiment, a period-instrument ensemble devoted to exploring the influence of military cultures on music throughout history. Dominic holds a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Music in Historical Performance Practice from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague where he studied as a Fulbright grantee.
