Conducting the Richmond Symphony - September 2008.  Aaron Sutton Photography.

Equally at home in the orchestral, choral and opera worlds, Erin Freeman is the Associate Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Richmond Symphony.  Her responsibilities include conducting subscription concerts, leading the Genworth Financial Symphony Pops Series, and artistic direction for the Symphony’s education initiatives including its four youth orchestras.  In addition, she holds the James Erb Choral Chair as Director of the 130-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus.

An enthusiastic champion of music education for all ages Dr. Freeman has served as Director of Orchestras at the critically acclaimed Baltimore School for the Arts, conductor for the National High School Music Institute Chorus at Northwestern University, lecturer for the National Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic, Resident Conductor at Peabody Conservatory, and Music Director of Collegium Vocale, a competitively auditioned choral ensemble located at Emory University in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.  Guest conducting engagements include the Savannah Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, and Virginia All-State Orchestra.

At the age of seventeen, Dr. Freeman was accepted as the youngest member of the Atlanta Symphony Chorus, under the direction of the late Robert Shaw, and continued that association singing with the Atlanta Symphony Chamber Chorus and the Robert Shaw Memorial Singers.  With a voice that the Boston Globe called “Virginal of timbre, pure of pitch,” Dr. Freeman has performed as concert soloist under the batons of Mr. Shaw, James Conlon, and Ann Howard Jones, and on the opera stage as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Mlle. Silberklang in The Impresario and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas.

Winner of numerous awards, including the Peabody’s Baltimore Music Club Prize in Performance and the Women’s Philharmonic Conducting Scholarship, Dr. Freeman received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Northwestern University, a Masters degree in Conducting from the Boston University School for the Arts, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting with Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar at the Peabody Conservatory. Previously, she studied and performed in master classes with Robert Shaw, Helmut Rilling, Robert Spano, Jonathan Carney and Murry Sidlin.

The 2009-2010 season includes collaborations with Tai Murray, Arturo Sandoval, The Machine, and Steve Lippia, repertoire from Beethoven to Jennifer Higdon, participation in the Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts symposium, and the launch of a new Family series with the Richmond Symphony.  The press has described her conducting style as “Dynamic but Grounded” and “Sensitive,” while audiences have deemed her “inspiring,” “animated,” “entertaining,” and “thoroughly charming.” 

Erin Freeman lives with her husband Drew in the Forest Hill area of Richmond, where they enjoy trail running and biking.  She holds a black belt in taekwondo, is an avid amateur cook, and loves fiction.