Carnegie Hall’s chairman of the Board Sanford I. Weill, Bank of America’s chief marketing officer Ann Finucane, and Carnegie Hall’s executive and artistic director Clive Gillinson at the Carnegie Hall 2008 Opening Night Gala. Photo: Chris Lee
Clive Gillinson is the Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall. He was appointed in 2005.
Education: Recital Diploma, Royal Academy of Music
Personal: Mr. Gillinson and his wife, Penny, have three children, Sarah, Miriam, and David
Background: Clive Gillinson was born in Bangalore, India, in 1946; his mother was a professional cellist and his father, a businessman, also wrote and painted. Mr. Gillinson began studying the cello at the age of eleven and played in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He went to London University to study mathematics, but realizing that he wanted to make music his life, entered the Royal Academy of Music, where he gained a Recital Diploma and won the top cello prize. After attending the Royal Academy of Music, Mr. Gillinson became a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Mr. Gillinson joined the London Symphony Orchestra cello section in 1970 and was elected to the Board of Directors of the self-governing orchestra in 1976, also serving as Finance Director. In 1984 he was asked by the Board to become Managing Director of the LSO, a position he held until becoming the Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall in 2005.
Under Mr. Gillinson's leadership, the LSO initiated some of that city’s most innovative and successful artistic festivals, working with many of today's leading artists. In the international touring arena, the LSO established an annual residency in New York from 1997 and was a founding partner in the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, in 1990, with Leonard Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas. Mr. Gillinson believes in taking great music to the society at large. In this area, his initiatives with the London Symphony Orchestra included the development of the LSO Discovery music education program, reaching over 30,000 people of all ages annually; and the creation of LSO St. Luke’s, the UBS and LSO Music Education Center; which involved the restoration and reconstruction of St. Luke’s, a magnificent, but previously derelict 18th-century church. Mr. Gillinson also created LSO Live, the orchestra's award-winning international CD label.
Trustee, Carnegie Hall Board member, American Symphony Orchestra League Member Board of Overseers, Curtis Institute in Philadelphia Member Honorary Board, Brubeck Institute of the University of the Pacific Honorary Doctorate, Curtis Institute in May 2007 Recipient, CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in the 1999 New Year Honours List Recipient, 2004 Making Music Sir Charles Grove Prize for his outstanding contribution to British music Appointed Knight Bachelor in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2005, the first-ever orchestra manager to be honored with a Knighthood. Past Chairman, Association of British Orchestras; Founding Trustee, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts Founding Chairman, Management Committee of the Clore Leadership Programme
