Teddy Abrams

Teddy Abrams, Grammy Award winner and Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, has been the galvanizing force behind the Louisville Orchestra’s (LO) extraordinary artistic renewal and innovative social impact since his appointment as Music Director in September 2014. His work has been profiled by CBS Sunday Morning, the New Yorker, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and PBS NewsHour.

Among Abrams’s manifold achievements in Kentucky are the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps, a trailblazing initiative that provides a fully funded residency for three composers who receive local housing, a salary, health benefits and dedicated workspaces; and the “In Harmony” tour, a multi-season community-building project on a giant scale funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky that takes the orchestra to every corner of the state for concerts and special community events. This statewide touring has included featured performances with Grammy Award winners Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, and violinist Tessa Lark. Deemed by the New York Times as a “Maestro of the People,” Abrams “has embedded himself in his community, breaking the mold of modern conductors.”

Abrams’s 2024–25 season with the Louisville Orchestra includes Carl Orff’s monumental Carmina Burana, Ray Chen performing Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, and Valerie Coleman’s Concerto for Orchestra. The spring includes world premieres of works from the third round of composers participating in the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps.

This season, Abrams makes his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with return guest conductor appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, and Curtis Symphony Orchestra. This past summer, Abrams returned to the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the second consecutive year and conducted NYO2 at Carnegie Hall’s World Orchestra Week! (WOW!). In North America, Abrams has conducted the Chicago, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Vancouver, and Phoenix Symphonies; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Buffalo Philharmonic; and the Minnesota, Florida, and Sarasota Orchestras. Internationally, Abrams has conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Luxembourg Philharmonic.

A prolific and award-winning composer himself, Abrams – as part of the Emerson Collective Fellowship – will compose an orchestral work to premiere in the Louisville Orchestra’s 2025–26 season that tells the story of the state of Kentucky. The raw material for the piece will come from community sessions Abrams leads on visits around the state: time spent with Kentuckians music-making, storytelling, and sharing local history.

Recent compositional highlights include Mammoth, an immersive theater work inspired by and performed in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park in 2023 with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and a cast of local musicians. Other recent works include a piano concerto written for Abrams’s frequent collaborator Yuja Wang, with which he and the Louisville Orchestra made their Deutsche Grammophon debuts on the virtuoso pianist’s Grammy award-winning March 2023 release, The American Project; and Space Variations, a collection of three new pieces for Universal Music Group’s 2022 World Sleep Day. Abrams is now at work on ALI, a new Broadway musical about boxing legend and activist Muhammad Ali. Abrams first began exploring Ali’s life and legacy in 2016, and the LO premiered his rap opera, The Greatest: Muhammad Ali, the following year. The all-star cast featured Rhiannon Giddens, Jubilant Sykes, and activist-musician Jecorey “1200” Arthur, now one of Louisville’s Metro councilmen, with whom Abrams went on to found the Louisville Orchestra Rap School.

The rap opera is just one of the adventurous collaborations Abrams has initiated in Louisville, in addition to the “In Harmony” tour and Creators Corps. With Jim James, vocalist and guitarist for My Morning Jacket, he composed the song cycle The Order of Nature, which they premiered with the Louisville Orchestra and reprised with the National Symphony Orchestra at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center before recording it on Decca Gold. Similarly, with singer-songwriter Storm Large, Abrams and the LO recorded All In, a celebration of American music by Cole Porter, Aaron Copland, and Abrams and Large themselves, also for release on Decca Gold.

Abrams and the LO are the recipients of a one-of-a-kind, sculptural conductor’s rail and podium from Ireland’s Joseph Walsh Studio. Completed in September 2023, the ash stage-piece was created expressly for Abrams and the orchestra and is used during all of their performances together.

In summer 2023, Abrams concluded his decade-long tenure as Music Director and Conductor of Oregon’s Britt Festival Orchestra. As well as helming its annual three-week festival of concerts, he led the orchestra on tour in the Pacific Northwest with new works including Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw’s experiential Brush, written for their summer 2021 performances on the Jacksonville Woodlands Trail system; and Michael Gordon’s Natural History. Their world premiere performance of Gordon’s work, presented in partnership with the National Park Service at the edge of Crater Lake National Park, was the subject of the PBS documentary Symphony for Nature.

Abrams served as Assistant Conductor of the Detroit Symphony (2012–14), as Resident Conductor of Hungary’s MAV Symphony Orchestra (2011-2012), and as Conducting Fellow and Assistant Conductor of the New World Symphony (2008–11).

Yoann Combémorel

Emerging French conductor Yoann Combémorel is an exceptional young talent who exhibits clear technique and a magnetic stage presence. Deeply committed to expanding access to education and artistic development, he has consistently developed projects that bring culture, musical training, and creative opportunities to communities, especially in rural areas and regions with limited access to the arts.

Hometown
Grenoble, France

Instrument
violin

Degree
Sibelius Academy, Bachelor of Music, 2024

Carlos Miguel Prieto

Known for his charisma and expressive interpretations, Mexican conductor and Grammy-winner Carlos Miguel Prieto has established himself not just as a major figure in the orchestra world but also as an influential cultural leader, an educator, and a champion of new music. In a significant career development, he started his tenure as Music Director of the North Carolina Symphony at the beginning of the 2023– 2024 season.

‍From 2007 to 2022, Prieto was the Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, the country’s leading ensemble, and significantly raised the caliber of the orchestra. He was also Music Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra from 2006 to 2023, where he helped lead the cultural renewal of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. He led the Louisiana Philharmonic to a successful Carnegie Hall debut and a Grammy in 2024. In 2008, he was appointed Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (OSM), which he led to a Latin Grammy- nomination for Best Classical Music Album and a Grammy award for Best Classical Composition. In 2023, Prieto led OSM in a highly successful tour of the United States, and in 2024 had a hugely impactful residence at Vail! Bravo.

‍Recent highlights include engagements with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The Spanish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Strasbourg Philharmonic, and Auckland Philharmonia.

Prieto is in demand as a guest conductor with many of the top North American orchestras, including Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Toronto, Minnesota, Washington, New World, and Houston. He has enjoyed a particularly successful relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony. In 2023, Prieto made his hugely successful BBC Proms debut at Royal Albert Hall, and at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2024.

‍Since 2002 Prieto has conducted the Orchestra of the Americas, which draws young musicians from the entire American continent. A staunch proponent of music education, Prieto served as Principal Conductor of the YOA from its inception until 2011 when he was appointed Music Director. In 2018 he conducted the orchestra on a tour of European summer festivals, which included performances at the Rheingau and Edinburgh festivals as well as Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. He has also worked regularly with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the NYO2 in New York.

Prieto is renowned for championing Latin American music as well as his dedication to new music. He has conducted over 100 world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers, many of which were commissioned by him. Prieto places equal importance on championing works by Black and African American composers such as Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and Courtney Bryan, among others.

Prieto has an extensive discography that includes Deutsche Gramophone, Naxos, and Sony labels. Prieto was recognized by Musical America as the 2019 Conductor of the Year. A graduate of Princeton and Harvard universities, Prieto studied conducting with Jorge Mester, Enrique Diemecke, Charles Bruck, and Michael Jinbo.

Jason Seber

Jason Seber is known for his inviting and engaging approach on and off the podium. A strong believer in the eclectic experiences which today’s symphony orchestras offer their communities, he strives to make music of many genres and styles accessible, relevant, and meaningful to diverse audiences across the country.

Seber has conducted many leading American orchestras, including the Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Nashville, National, North Carolina, Phoenix, San Diego, and St. Louis Symphony, the Louisville and Minnesota Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Cincinnati Pops, among others. Upcoming performances include debuts with the Oregon Symphony and the Dallas Symphony. Seber has conducted over 25 full feature films and has had the pleasure of performing with a wide range of artists including Patti Austin, Mason Bates, Andrew Bird, Boyz II Men, Ashley Brown, Melissa Etheridge, Ben Folds, Cody Fry, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Indigo Girls, Wynonna Judd, Lyle Lovett, Katharine McPhee, Natalie Merchant, Brian Stokes Mitchell, My Morning Jacket, Leslie Odom Jr., Aoife O’Donovan, Pink Martini, Ben Rector, Stephen Schwartz, Doc Severinsen, Violent Femmes, and Bobby Watson.

Seber served as associate conductor of the Kansas City Symphony from 2016 to 2022. In this position he led the Symphony in over 300 performances on the Classical, Pops, Classics Uncorked, Family, Film + Live Orchestra, Education, and Christmas Festival series. He also served as co-host for the Symphony’s podcast, “Beethoven Walks into a Bar.” Prior to Kansas City, Seber was the education and outreach conductor at the Louisville Orchestra from 2013 to 2016 and music director of the Louisville Youth Orchestra from 2005 to 2016.

A passionate advocate for music education, Seber has led the Honors Performance Series Orchestra in concert at Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, and Royal Festival Hall in London. He is a frequent guest conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra each summer and he has served as the All-State Orchestra conductor for Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.

Leonard Slatkin

Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director of the Nashville Symphony, Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria (OFGC). He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting and is active as a composer, author, and educator.

In addition to multiple appearances in Nashville, the 2026-27 season includes engagements with the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, OFGC, Orchestra of the Music Makers (Singapore), New World Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Florida Orchestra, SLSO, Frost Symphony Orchestra (Miami), National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Orquesta de Valencia.

Slatkin has received six Grammy awards and 35 nominations. His most recent recording, Pictures at an Exhibition: The Paintings of Bob Peak, was released on Warner Classics in 2026. Naxos has reissued Vox audiophile editions of his SLSO recordings featuring the works of Gershwin, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev. Other Naxos recordings include Slatkin Conducts Slatkin—a compilation of pieces written by generations of his family—as well as works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Berlioz, Copland, Borzova, McTee, and Williams.

A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He has been awarded the Lincoln Medal from Ford’s Theatre Society, the Prix Charbonnier from the Federation of Alliances Françaises, Austria’s Decoration of Honor in Silver, and the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton. His debut book, Conducting Business (2012), for which he received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award, was followed by Leading Tones (2017) and Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21st Century (2021). His latest books are Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Twentieth Century (spring 2024) and Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Nineteenth Century (fall 2024). A second volume of twentieth-century score studies will be published by Bloomsbury in February 2027 as part of this ongoing series. For more information, visit leonardslatkin.com.

Scott Terrell

Scott Terrell has built a major conducting career through imaginative programs, an engaging presence, and a passion for artistic excellence, teaching, and viability. An ardent champion of new music and diversity of repertoire, he is a conductor whose artistry and intellect has engaged musicians, students, and audiences. Maestro Terrell is Associate Professor of Orchestral Studies, holding the Virginia Martin Howard Chair, at Louisiana State University School of Music.

In demand as a guest conductor, he will make debuts this season with the Oregon Symphony, Pacific Symphony, and Nashville Symphony, while returning to the Utah Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Bogota Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, and Louisiana Philharmonic.

Passionate about working with aspiring musicians, Terrell is an active guest clinician, teacher, and adjudicator. He has been a regular guest conductor and instructor at the Aspen Music Festival, leading concerts and mentoring students, as well as teaching internationally at the Sofia Symphonic Summit in Bulgaria and the International Masterclass for Conductors in Schladming, Austria.

Maestro Terrell has led organizations including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Orquesta Simfònica del Valles, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Opera Colorado, Opera Hong Kong, Arizona Opera, Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and Milwaukee Symphony.

Mr. Terrell was Music Director of the Lexington Philharmonic from 2009–2019, transforming the organization through higher artistic standards, diverse programming, expanded collaborations, and community support. A Michigan native, he previously served as Resident Conductor of the Charleston Symphony and Assistant Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. He trained at Western Michigan University, the University of Minnesota, and the Aspen Music Festival, where he received the Conducting Prize from David Zinman.

Carl Topilow

Through his more than four decades as the NRO’s music director and conductor, Carl Topilow has influenced and nurtured countless young musicians and aspiring conductors. In his new role as Conductor Laureate, he is remaining active with the organization and enjoying his work with music director Michael Stern.

Topilow is the founding conductor of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and music director and conductor of the Firelands Symphony Orchestra in Sandusky, Ohio. Past positions have included conductor and director of the orchestral program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and principal pops conductor with the Toledo Symphony, Southwest Florida Symphony and Mansfield Symphony. In addition, he was the founding conductor of Summit Brass, an ensemble made up of some of the world’s most prominent brass players.

Topilow has served as guest conductor for 134 different orchestras in 37 states and 12 foreign countries, invariably finding NRO alumni wherever his travels take him.

Carl’s book, The Orchestral Conductor’s Career Handbook and published by Rowman and Littlefield, is now available through www.rowman.com and www.carltopilow.com. Containing abundant references to his work with the NRO, it has been endorsed by past NRO guest conductors Leonard Slatkin, JoAnn Falletta, Gerard Schwarz, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and others. He has served as instructor for 10 conducting workshops and is continuing his work as mentor for orchestral conductors.

Topilow’s late wife Shirley was the founder and subsequently President and CEO of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra. Their daughter Emily is now working as Director of Strategy and planning with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and performs as violinist with a local community Their daughter Jenny, an NRO alumna from the 2001 and 2003 seasons, is a violinist with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. A former marathon runner, Carl’s hobbies include travel, foreign languages, reading, golf, and spectator sports. He especially enjoys his time with his two grandchildren, Edie and Arlo.

Topilow is particularly proud of the accomplishments of his NRO assistant conductors. The orchestras with which they have held or hold positions include the Annapolis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Binghamton (NY) Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Columbus (OH) Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Illinois Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Limoges (France) Opera, Louisville Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony, Quad Cities Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Springfield (MA) Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, Symphony in C, Symphony of Southeast Texas, Thunder Bay Symphony, and Toledo Symphony.