Erin R. Freeman
Photo credit: Melody Yazdani
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, Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus, Artistic Director of Wintergreen Music, and Resident Conductor of the Richmond Ballet, the State Ballet of Virginia. She recently concluded successful tenures as Director of Choral Activities at George Washington University, Director of the award-winning Richmond Symphony Chorus, and Director of Choral Activities at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Guest conducting engagements include the New York City Ballet, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, 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 2021-22, 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.
In 2023-24, Freeman made her debut with the New York City Ballet in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, The Washington Ballet as part of 10,000 Dreams – A Celebration of Asian Choreography, and the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus, preparing Fauré Requiem for Stéphane Denève; and 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.
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).