Dr. Noreen Green is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony (LAJS), which she founded in 1994. Known worldwide for her knowledge and skill in presenting music with Jewish themes, she has served as guest conductor in the United States, Israel, South Africa, Australia and Canada. In 2017, she was honored by Musical America, the oldest and most prestigious American magazine on classical music, as one of its Movers & Shapers, the Top 30 Musical America Professionals of the Year.
Under Dr. Green’s direction, the LAJS has performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Ford Theatres, the Soraya (formerly the Valley Performing Arts Center at CSUN), Royce Hall at UCLA, the Gindi Auditorium at American Jewish University and other venues. Special guest performers have included such personalities as Tovah Feldshuh, Randy Newman, Theodore Bikel, Marvin Hamlisch, Dave Koz, Hershey Felder and many others. The LAJS and its Teaching Artists annually serve over 1200 elementary students with an innovative outreach education program, A Patchwork of Cultures: Exploring the Sephardic-Latino Connection.
In response to the 2020 pandemic, Dr. Green formed the Jewish Community Chorale, as a program of the LAJS, to allow community singers a virtual outlet to continue to sing and express their love of Jewish choral music. This innovative response to the crisis was a natural outgrowth of Dr. Green’s extensive history of choral work, most recently with the AJU Choir, which she founded in 2014; the Pierce Encore singers, which she led from 2016- 2018; and her decades of work as Music Director of several Synagogue programs.
In May 2018, Dr. Green was honored to conduct the World Premiere of Emily Bear’s “And Forever Free,” with the composer at the piano, in Rockford, Illinois. The occasion was Bear’s induction into the Order of Lincoln, Illinois’ highest honor for professional achievement and public service; the 16-year-old Bear is the youngest recipient in the history of the prize. Other recent guest conducting engagements include the “Pesach Extravaganza” at Temple B’nai Torah, in Boca Raton, Florida.
Dr. Green has received numerous awards and recognition, including the National Foundation of Jewish Culture, the State of Israel Bonds, and California Legislature Assembly Member Bob Blumenfield for creating the Interfaith Tribute Choir and Orchestra Concert for Remembering 9/11. In 2012, Zev Yaroslavsky and the LA County Board of Supervisors honored her with a Commendation for her contribution to the Los Angeles arts scene.
In great demand as a lecturer and educator, Dr. Green has spoken at numerous national and international symposia and for the LA Philharmonic’s Upbeat Live series. In 2017, Dr. Green gave a highly acclaimed lecture-concert, A Celebration of Women and Music through a Jewish Lens, in Sydney, Australia. She also spoke at the National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association on the subject of Jewish choral music from the Sephardic and Ashkenazic traditions. The previous year, Dr. Green presented a workshop on Jewish music at the American Choral Directors Association Western Division Conference and delivered a talk on Jewish composers in film at the Magnes Collection for Jewish Art and Life in Berkeley, CA. In 2015, she gave the keynote speech at the annual Spring Conference of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism in Irvine, CA
Dr. Green and the LAJS have released two CDs on the prestigious Albany Records label: contemporary Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield’s oratorio Women of Valor in 2017 and Holocaust survivor Eric Zeisl’s ballet “Jacob and Rachel” and “Variations on a Slovakian Theme” on The Music of Eric Zeisl in 2019.