James Gaffigan joined the San Francisco Symphony in 2006 as Associate Conductor. His most recent appointment was as the Cleveland Orchestra's Assistant Conductor, a post he held for three seasons. Born in 1979 in New York City, he received his undergraduate degree from Boston's New England Conservatory and holds a master's degree (in conducting) from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston. In 2000, he was one of eight conductors chosen to participate in the inaugural year of the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen, and two years later he received the Academy's first Robert Harth Award. One of two first-prize winners at the Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition, held in Frankfurt in 2004, he has led performances at the Zurich Opera and has conducted that city's Tonhalle Orchestra and Berlin's Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester. In the US, he has led such ensembles as the New World Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Rochester Philharmonic. He is also Music Director of CityMusic, a chamber orchestra in Cleveland that presents free concerts throughout the city.