Meet Gary!

A lifelong public servant and proud product of musical family roots, this candidate brings a remarkable depth of community experience to the Guest Conductor Competition. He spent thirty-three years in public education — seventeen as a School Psychologist and sixteen as a school administrator, retiring as Superintendent of Worcester Central School in 2012 — before leading the Clark Foundation Scholarship Program as its Director from 2013 until 2025. A man of extraordinary range, he also served for over twenty years as a firefighter, retiring as Fire Chief of the Cooperstown Fire Department, and spent fourteen years as a Judge for the Town of Otsego. He knows firsthand what it means to fight for arts funding in tight-budget times, and he believes the CSO is as essential to this region as any institution in it. Music has been woven into the fabric of his life since childhood — growing up in a family of trumpet, tuba, accordion, clarinet, saxophone, and flute players — and he remains a proud alumnus of school bands, the Cooperstown Community Band, and the legendary Fly Creek Philharmonic, where he performed on instruments ranging from kazoo to saw blade to wooden organ pipes. He can read a musical score — or, as he puts it, "fake it with the best of them."

Help Gary win the baton and conduct the Catskill Symphony Orchestra at this year's Guest Conductor Competition!

How to vote:

Votes are tallied through dollars donated ($1 = 1 vote). Voting is now open and donations may be made through:

Donate online: GiveButter (givebutter.com/CSOKuch - this page!)
Donate by mail: Checks mailed to the Catskill Symphony Orchestra and received by May 6th (note the donation for Gary's campaign in the memo)
Donate live: Join us on May 9th at the Hunt Union Ballroom at SUNY Oneonta, to donate in person and meet Gary live, and take in a splendid evening of the works of George Gershwin!

Tickets available at catskillsymphony.org/concerts (all tickets are Cabaret-style seating; students always free -- including the May 9 concert -- and up to two parents/guardians accompanying students are only $10 per individual). Seating is limited -- reserve your tickets as soon as possible!

Gary Kuch - Catskill Symphony Guest Conductor Contender

Help Gary win the baton on May 9th!