Photo credit: Sarah Ferguson
Erin R. Freeman
Versatile, engaging, and spirited, conductor and artistic leader Erin Freeman serves in multiple positions throughout the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia and maintains an international presence through guest conducting engagements. Freeman is Artistic Director of the City Choir of Washington, Artistic Director of Wintergreen Music, Resident Conductor of the Richmond Ballet, the State Ballet of Virginia, and Director of Choral Activities at George Washington University. She recently concluded successful tenures as Director of the award-winning Richmond Symphony Chorus and Director of Choral Activities at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Guest conducting engagements include the Detroit Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, South Carolina Philharmonic, Savannah Symphony, Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and additional ensembles in New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, and Illinois. She has conducted at Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, La Madeleine in Paris, and the Kennedy Center, and has led and/or prepared the Richmond Symphony Chorus for multiple recordings, including the 2019 GRAMMY-nominated release of Mason Bates’ Children of Adam on the Reference Recording label. After a year of creating online experiences for multiple organizations and leading the 2021 in-person Wintergreen Music Festival, in 2021-2022, Freeman returned to the podium in engagements with the Virginia, Portland, Detroit, Williamsburg, and Richmond Symphony Orchestras, choral preparation for the Defiant Requiem Foundation, a performance of Faure’s Requiem in Carnegie Hall with Distinguished Concerts International New York, two productions with the Richmond Ballet, and the Richmond Symphony Chorus’ long-awaited 50th anniversary celebration, featuring Haydn’s The Creation. The 2022-2023 season brought appearances with the Detroit Symphony, the Toledo Symphony, the Savannah Philharmonic, the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra, three productions with the Richmond Ballet, multiple podium appearances at the Wintergreen Music Festival, and four performances with the City Choir of Washington. In 2023-2024, Freeman will make her debut at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts conducting Carmina Burana with the Richmond Ballet; Cadogan Hall in London, England leading Everyday Wonders - The Girl from Aleppo by Cecilia McDowall; and the Musikverein in Vienna with Berkshire Choral International, featuring Bruckner’s Te Deum and Elgar’s The Music Makers. In addition, she will lead four performances with the City Choir of Washington, three productions with the Richmond Ballet, and prepare the St. Louis Symphony Chorus for a performance of Fauré Requiem.
A recent finalist for Performance Today’s Classical Woman of the Year, Freeman has also been named one of Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s “50 Most Influential Women in Virginia” and an “Extraordinary Woman Leader” by the VCU School of Business. Freeman holds degrees from Northwestern University (BMus), Boston University (MM), and Peabody Conservatory (DMA).