Biography

Long Biography
September 2024

An eloquent and articulate artist on and off the podium renowned for her dynamic leadership, energetic performances, and progressive vision, American conductor Laura Jackson is praised for her innovation, passion, and commitment to the continued growth of the symphonic repertoire and expanding music’s impact within communities. Having served as the fourth Music Director and Conductor of the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra (Reno Phil) since 2009, her contract has been unanimously renewed through the end of 2028-2029 season, ensuring that diverse, compelling repertoire, and creative community programming will continue up through the organization’s 60th anniversary. A 21st century conductor at home with repertoire from every era, Jackson is recognized for her championing of new music, her creativity with commissions, and her commitment to mentoring and encouraging the next generation of musicians, composers and women conductors. A frequent guest conductor, she has led distinguished ensembles across the United States, Canada, France, Poland, Czech Republic, Algeria, and China, and her relationships with orchestras continue to expand.

Highlights of Maestra Jackson’s 2024-25 season with the Reno Philharmonic include the world premiere of Marko Bajzer’s The Sacrifice of Prometheus, the Western premiere of Iryna Aleksiychuk’s Go where the wind takes you (collaboration with Classical Movements and Taki Alsop Fellowship; Jackson led the world premiere at the Prague Summer Festival), performances of Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Reno Philharmonic Chorus, Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari, William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, an all-mariachi music concert, featuring Mexico’s internationally renowned ensemble Mariachi Cobre, and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4. Amongst her 2024-25 guesting engagements announced to date are the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice,  Kansas's Wichita Symphony Orchestra, and Florida's Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

A popular guest conductor, Maestra Jackson has guested with numerous orchestras nationwide, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony and Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia’s Breaking Barriers Festival (in a performance of Michael Daugherty’s Time Machine for three conductors and orchestra with Jeri Lynne Johnson and Marin Alsop). Other American ensembles include the Buffalo, Detroit, Alabama, San Antonio, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Phoenix, North Carolina, Hawaii, New World, Sacramento, Toledo, Charlottesville, Hartford, Orlando, Evansville, Berkely, Cape Cod, Richmond, and Flint symphony orchestras, the Eugene and South Carolina philharmonics and Mimesis Ensemble (New York), and Musiqua (Houston), to name a few. International guest engagements include France’s Orchestre symphonique de Bretagne-Rennes, Canada’s Ontario Philharmonic, Toronto, Windsor, and Winnipeg symphony orchestras, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Czech Republic’s Prague Summer Nights Festival. Jackson is the first American to conduct the National Symphony Orchestra of Algeria by invitation of the U.S. State Department.

A champion of living composers, Laura Jackson created and launched the Reno Philharmonic’s Composer in Residence initiative, and has commissioned and presented seven world premieres with the orchestra to date: Reno Phil Youth Orchestra alumnus Paul Novak’s longing is an aviary (2023); Jimmy López Bellido’s Symphony No. 3: Altered Landscape (for which Jackson approached and collaborated with the Nevada Museum of Art, using its signature photographic collection “Altered Landscape” as inspiration for the commission, and the Nevada chapter of The Nature Conservancy to raise awareness of environmental stewardship in Nevada, which resulted in a feature in Forbes Magazine (2020)); Monica Houghton’s Respectfully yours, (2020); Grammy nominated Zhou Tian’s Transcend (2019) (in which Reno Phil led a 13-orchestra consortium); Carlos Simon’s orchestral version of Amen! (2019) (a Reno Philharmonic led commission in partnership with the Gateways Music Festival and conductor Michael Morgan along with the American Composers Orchestra); Michael Gandolfi’s Chesapeake Summer of 1814 (2013); and Sean Shepherd’s Silvery Rills and Desert Garden (both 2011). With the Reno Phil, Jackson has led over 50 Reno Phil premieres and multiple Western premieres, including Jonathan Leshnoff’s Guitar Concerto (2014) (co-commissioned in partnership with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Lead), Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias).

Under Jackson’s leadership, the Reno Philharmonic has expanded its community and education programs and initiatives to include the Composers In Residence, Conduct Us, movies with live orchestra performances, and the annual Play for a Day – in which amateur community musicians perform side-by-side in concert with Reno Phil musicians. Since Jackson became Music Director, the youth orchestras have expanded from three to five ensembles, and the organization introduced live streaming of concerts beginning in 2020.

Committed to mentoring the up-and-coming musicians of tomorrow, Laura Jackson strives to create opportunities to mentor women conductors, and to encourage young composers and musicians. Currently in her third season as an official mentor to emerging women conductors across the globe in the Taki-Alsop Foundation’s Fellowship program, Jackson with Reno Phil, also partners with the Davidson Institute in Reno Nevada to feature their instrumental fellows in concert.

In the recording arena, Jackson has recorded Michael Daugherty’s Time Cycle with the Bournemouth Symphony with Marin Alsop and Mei-Ann Chen for Naxos. With Marc Rovetti and the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, she recorded Augusta Reed Thomas’s violin concerto Spirit Musings.

Prior to joining the Reno Philharmonic, Maestra Jackson served as the first female Assistant Conductor / League of American Orchestras Conducting Fellow of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (2004–2007). Additional fellowships include Tanglewood Music Center’s Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellowship and an Aspen Music Festival Conducting Fellowship. She was selected as one of six conductors for the 2009 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, where she conducted the Nashville Symphony. Jackson holds a DMA and Masters in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. As an undergraduate, she studied violin and conducting at Indiana University.