Conductor Patrick Gardner is director of choral activities and the conducting program at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, where he conducts the Kirkpatrick Choir and Glee Club. He is also active as a concert and opera conductor in New York City. Since 1990, he has directed the Riverside Choral Society, which, in addition to presenting its major concerts at Lincoln Center and other New York venues, has been regularly engaged to perform major choral works for the Mostly Mozart Festival. An active new-music advocate, Gardner has won the praise of such notable composers as Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Lou Harrison, William Bolcom, Leslie Bassett, and William Albright. He conducted the New York premiere of Bolcom's The Miracle at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in 2001, and in 2006 with the Riverside Choral Society, Gardner presented the world premiere of the two piano version of Shostakovich’s Babi Yar symphony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
