Gisèle Ben-Dor

As a 3-year-old child in Uruguay, Gisèle Ben-Dor started asking her parents to let her use the family piano. By the time she was 12, she was leading a band she had organized with a group of friends in Montevideo.

Today, Ben-Dor is the conductor emerita of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, a post she was elected to by the musicians after serving as the group’s music director for a decade. Also conductor laureate of the Santa Barbara Symphony, she has served as a guest conductor with major orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.

Born to Polish immigrants, Ben-Dor studied piano and taught herself how to play the guitar. After finishing high school in Uruguay, she moved to Israel and later the United States. Called “a ferocious talent” by the Los Angeles Times, she is renowned for her interpretations of the classics and as a tireless champion of Latin American music.

“Being a woman conductor may not be normal to the outside world, but it’s normal to me,” she once told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I must say that since I came to the United States, I have been given every opportunity, and I hope I deserve it.”