Gisele Ben-Dor

Gisele Ben-Dor was born in 1955 in Montevideo

Gisele Ben-Dor was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, to Polish Jewish immigrant parents. From 1969 to 1973 she was music director of the Ivria Institute in Montevideo. She moved to Israel in 1973.

She studied at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv and later at the Yale School of Music. She also studied with Mendi Rodan in Jerusalem. Her conducting debut was with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, in a concert broadcast by the BBC.

Leonard Bernstein invited her to appear with him at Tanglewood. She held posts with orchestras in Louisville and Houston, and led the Annapolis Symphony and the Boston Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra. From 1994 to 2006 she was music director of the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra.

She has guest conducted orchestras around the world, including in Israel. She promotes Latin American music, including works by Ginastera, Villa-Lobos, Revueltas and Piazzolla, and founded festivals devoted to it. In 2007 she joined the board of the Jewish National Fund in her area of the United States.