James W. Palermo

Artistic and General Director

James W. Palermo celebrates his fourteenth season as the Artistic and General Director of the Grant Park Music Festival in 2008. Under Mr. Palermo’s leadership, the Festival has expanded to offer innovative community engagement and education programs, and has diversified its mix of music, highlighting in particular the work of living American composers.

Mr. Palermo had a key role in the development of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, the Grant Park Music Festival’s permanent home since July 2004. Other highlights of his tenure include the establishment of the Grant Park Orchestral Association, a not for profit organization that supports activities of the Grant Park Music Festival, and the formation of partnerships with Chicago Sister Cities International, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Children’s Choir and the Sherwood Conservatory. In 2004, the 60-concert community engagement program expanded to include chamber orchestra and choral performances at Chicago Park District neighborhood Cultural Centers and introduced many people from Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods to classical music at downtown Jay Pritzker Pavilion concerts in Millennium Park. Palermo has developed recent novel programmatic initiatives with WTTW11 public television, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and the Metro.

In 2004, Palermo was instrumental in the formation of the Apprentice Chorale, a new training chorus comprised of vocal students from the DePaul University School of Music and Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. The 20-member ensemble trains intensively with Grant Park Chorus Director Christopher Bell, performs ensemble concerts in Chicago landmark locations and parks, as well as alongside the professional Grant Park Chorus.

The Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus released their debut recording, Independence Eve at Grant Park, in June 1999, a project spearheaded by Mr. Palermo. Since then, the Orchestra has recorded several fully commercial releases on Chicago’s Cedille Records label, including American Works for Organ and Orchestra (2002) and the GRAMMY®-nominated Robert Kurka: Symphonic Works (2004). In the spring of 2006, the Cedille Records label released its two newest recordings of the Grant Park Orchestra and Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar: Portraits, a program of violin concerti by Szymanowski, Bartok and Martinu featuring Jennifer Koh; and American Orchestral Works, featuring compositions by Barbara Kolb, Michael Hersch, Aaron Jay Kernis, John Corigliano, and John Harbison. In 2008 Cedille will release two more CDs of the Orchestra with Carlos Kalmar, one including works by Aaron Jay Kernis and another called royal Mezzo featuring internationally renowned opera star Jennifer Larmore.

In 1995, Mr. Palermo came to Chicago from Louisville, Kentucky, where he was orchestra manager of The Louisville Orchestra. Mr. Palermo’s responsibilities there included artistic and operational planning for the Orchestra, and he also assisted in artistic planning and production for the organization’s record label, First Edition Recordings.

Prior to his post in Louisville, Mr. Palermo served as general manager of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra in southwestern Indiana from 1989-1992. There, he was instrumental in creating a new Family Series, forming a regional Youth Orchestra and a resident string quartet, hiring a new assistant conductor, and enhancing holiday programming, including much-loved holiday pops productions and sold-out Messiah performances.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Palermo showed musical inclination at an early age. He studied at Cathedral Latin School and later attended Indiana University, where he received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in trumpet performance. Mr. Palermo performed with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra for two seasons, as well as with the Orquesta Sinfonica Del Valle in Cali, Columbia, and throughout Europe.

Palermo was selected as a fellow for the American Symphony Orchestra League's prestigious Orchestra Management Fellowship Program in 1988-89. As a Fellow, he worked with the orchestras of Colorado Springs, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Subsequently, Mr. Palermo served on the national committee that oversees, interviews and selects new American Symphony Orchestra League Fellows. He also has testified on behalf of American orchestras before the House Subcommittee on Postal Operations.

Mr. Palermo has served as a consultant and board member for a number of organizations, including the Grant Park Cultural and Educational Community, the program planning committee for the Sherwood Conservatory, the music director and executive director search committees for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, the 25th anniversary committee for the Chicago Opera Theater and the Executive Director search committee for University of Chicago Presents. Currently, Mr. Palermo serves on the board of the William Ferris Chorale.