Laura Jackson

Music Director Designate

An eloquent artist on and off the podium renowned for her captivating performances and dynamic leadership, American conductor Laura Jackson is praised for her creativity, passion, and commitment to music as a source of connection and enrichment for all. A tireless advocate for excellence in performance as well as for music education, she is a true believer in the essential importance of music for the health and vitality of our communities.

On July 16, 2026, Jackson was appointed the fifth Music Director and Conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, where she will serve as Music Director Designate in the 2026-27 season and fully assume the position in fall 2027. She continues as the fourth Music Director and Conductor of the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, a post she has held since 2009.

A 21st-century conductor at home with repertoire from every era, Jackson is recognized for her powerful and original interpretations of Romantic masterpieces, her championing of new music, and her commitment to mentoring the next generation of musicians, composers, and conductors. A frequent guest conductor, she has led distinguished ensembles across the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Algeria, the Philippines and China, and her relationships with orchestras continue to expand.

Highlights of Jackson’s 2026-27 in Madison include Music Director Designate preview concerts performing Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with Joyce Yang and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony in November, and a season finale featuring Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto 4-3 (with the multi-genre virtuoso string trio Time for Three) and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Guest appearances will include performances of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra in Toronto, Sleeping Beauty with the A.V.A. Ballet, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

Maestro Jackson has performed with orchestras across the United States, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia leading a “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” concert with cellist Zlatomir Fung in 2025. Other American appearances include the Buffalo, Detroit, Alabama, San Antonio, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Phoenix, North Carolina, Hawaii, New World, Sacramento, Toledo, Charlottesville, Hartford, Evansville, Berkeley, Richmond, and Flint symphony orchestras, the Eugene, Orlando, South Carolina and National Orchestral Institute philharmonics, plus the Mimesis Ensemble (New York) and Musiqua (Houston), to name a few.

International guest engagements include NOSPR-Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Germany’s Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, France’s Orchestre symphonique de Bretagne-Rennes, Canada’s Ontario Philharmonic, the 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, Jackson created and launched the Reno Philharmonic’s Composer in Residence Initiative, commissioning and presenting more than a dozen world premieres to date including Michelle Isaac’s Pressing Truths (2026), commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and Zhou Tian’s Transcend (2019.)

Jackson’s commissions are often community-engaged projects emphasizing collaborations. Lopez’s Symphony No. 3, for example, was inspired by the signature “Altered Landscape” photograph collection of the Nevada Museum of Art and connected with The Nature Conservancy’s Nevada Chapter to raise awareness of environmental stewardship, resulting in a Forbes Magazine feature (2022) that reported: “Laura Jackson is paving a new direction for up-and-coming female conductors and composers through her artistry, leadership, and creative community engagement.”

Committed to mentoring the musicians of tomorrow, Jackson strives to create opportunities to mentor women conductors, and to encourage young composers and musicians. She has served as a mentor to emerging women conductors across the globe through the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship mentoring program, since 2022.

Jackson has recorded Michael Daugherty’s Time Cycle with the Bournemouth Symphony with Marin Alsop and Mei-Ann Chen for Naxos. With Marc Rovetti (violin) and the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra she recorded Augusta Reed Thomas’s violin concerto Spirit Musings. Several of her world premiere performances can be experienced on YouTube and her online Reno Philharmonic performances can be heard on demand.

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. ​