FOUNDED IN 2006
Gwinnett Ballet Theatre Orchestra
Ballet the way it was meant to be seen and heard: with live music.
Founded in 2006, the Gwinnett Ballet Theatre Orchestra brings together more than 40 professional musicians. Since GBT became a professional company in 2020, every performance of The Nutcracker has been danced to live orchestra.
This season the orchestra joins the company in the pit at Gas South Theater for The Nutcracker and Firebird with Tango Nights. Live music changes every performance. The conductor follows the dancers, the dancers respond to the musicians, and no two shows are the same.
Maestro Predrag Gosta led the orchestra from its founding through its first 16 seasons and was named Conductor Emeritus in 2023. That same year Dr. Gregory Pritchard became Music Director, as GBT began bringing live music to more of its season. Audiences have since heard opera singers in Carmen, string quartets before performances, and jazz bands at our galas. This season, Firebird will be danced to a full live orchestra.
MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR
Dr. Gregory Pritchard
Dr. Gregory Pritchard became Music Director of Gwinnett Ballet Theatre in 2023, after earlier seasons with GBT as a staff conductor and bassoonist. He has been Music Director of the Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra since 2010, led the Gainesville Symphony Orchestra in Georgia for five seasons, and has conducted ballet for both Northeast Atlanta Ballet and GBT.
He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University. His career includes serving as Music Director of the Opera Company of Mid-Michigan, conducting the Kokomo Symphony Orchestra, and faculty work at institutions including Georgia State University. He chairs the Fine Arts Department at Gwinnett Online Campus and co-directs the International Conductors Workshop.
Dr. Pritchard is working with GBT’s artistic staff to bring live orchestra to more performances each season.
Keep the music live
A live orchestra is one of the largest costs of a production, and ticket sales do not cover it. Gifts from patrons keep musicians in the pit.