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Victoria Bond Short Biography Victoria Bond is the only woman composer/conductor to receive commissions from major organizations and also hold music director positions with leading ensembles. Her extensive catalog includes works written for the Houston, Shanghai, and Richmond Symphony Orchestras, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet, Jacob’s Pillow Dances Festival, and the Audubon String Quartet, among others. In every genre she undertakes, from opera to chamber music, her consummate musicianship serves to enrich a musical language that is beautifully crafted and deeply expressive. The first woman to be awarded a doctorate in conducting from The Juilliard School, Bond was appointed by Andre Previn as Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1978. In 1986, she was invited to conduct the Houston Symphony and to premiere her own composition for the orchestra, Ringing. In that same year, she was appointed Music Director and conductor of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, and shortly thereafter became artistic director of Opera Roanoke, holding both posts until 1995. She has also served as Music Director of The Bel Canto Opera, Harrisburg Opera and the New Amsterdam Symphony, and as Music Advisor of the Wuhan Symphony in China. Bond’s musical training also included studies in voice, with William Vennard at the University of Southern California; as a soprano, she recorded with Bethany Beardslee and appeared on the premiere recording of Harry Partch’s Delusion of the Fury. She has brought her vocal experience to bear in composing works such as Molly ManyBloom for soprano and string quartet, described by The New York Times as “by turns wistful, angry, caustic, rhapsodic and nostalgic,” and her chamber opera Mrs. President, based on the life of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president. Scenes from Mrs. President were performed by New York City Opera in 2001 as part of the company’s Vox reading series. Victoria Bond has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and on NBC’s Today Show, featured in People Magazine and in the New York Times. Her music is recorded on the Koch International, Albany, GEGA, Protone, and Family Classic labels. Download PDF

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Critical Acclaim Praise for Molly Manybloom: “Ms. Bond’s work, a setting of the final section of “Ulysses,” for soprano and string quartet, grants Molly something that Joyce denied her when he married her off to Bloom: She lets Molly be a prima donna, and gives her a powerful, stylistically varied, and technically demanding soprano line. Like Joyce’s text, it is by turns wistful, angry, caustic, rhapsodic and nostalgic. And around it, Ms. Bond has woven an expressive, dynamic quartet score in which the instruments are heard alone, in duets with Molly, and in a promiscuous combination of duets, trios and full ensembles. The language is pervasively chromatic, yet it takes in influences of all sorts, including blues, a waltz and fragments of popular songs mentioned by Joyce.” --Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, June 18, 1991 Praise for Mrs. President: “’Mrs. President’ focuses on Victoria Woodhull’s presidential candidacy and her relationship with Beecher. The title stems from a contemporary political cartoon by Thomas Nast, which describes her as “Mrs. Satan.” This is a story that was ripe for opera, and seeing and hearing this performance renews one’s hope in the possibilities of that art form. It is music that overflows with lyricism and passion and is set to an intensely poetic and dramatic libretto. Its unabashed songfulness can capture the ear of even the most hesitant, and the drama inherent in the attraction and repulsion of Woodhull and Beecher is as gripping as any dramatic event I’ve seen. There is no mistaking Ms. Bond for anything other than a 21st century American composer, but Puccini would have been thrilled to write some of these arias. --Fred Volkmer, The Southampton Press, September 5, 2002 Praise for What’s the Point of Counterpoint?: “Ms. Bond, a distinguished composer and conductor, has written a children’s story in music about a tune in search of a friend that should rank alongside “Peter and the Wolf” as enjoyable music didactics for young people. The tune discovers it friend after an odyssey through the cities of Rhythm (which is too noisy), Harmony (which is too peaceful and boring), and Counterpoint (where the tune learns that other tunes can coexist and make beautiful music together).” --David Swickard, The East Hampton Star, December 4, 2003 “It takes wit, imagination, and singular skill to write music specifically for children. How else to keep the restless little darlings engaged? You’ve just got to have the knack. Camille Saint-Saens had it with “Carnival of Animals,” and Prokofiev had it with “Peter and the Wolf.” Benjamin Britten had it with “The Young person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” The gifted American composer and conductor, Victoria Bond, has it too – and then some. Ms. Bond, whose “What’s the Point of Counterpoint?” was presented last Sunday morning at the festival tent, is a past master of musical kiddie form, notably for operas “Everyone is Good for Something” and “The Frog Prince.” With “What’s the Point of Counterpoint?” the composer ventured into the tricky realm of giving music lessons while simultaneously being entertaining.” --John Jonas Gruen, The East Hampton Star, July 22, 2004 Download PDF

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