Erin Freeman

Versatile, engaging, and spirited, conductor and artistic leader Erin Freeman was named the Director of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus in July 2024. She also 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, and the State Ballet of Virginia. 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, Portland (Maine) Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, Charlottesville Symphony, Virginia Symphony, 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, interactive experiences for multiple organizations, 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’ 50^th 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, and multiple performances with the Richmond Ballet, Wintergreen Music, and The City Choir of Washington.

In 2023-2024, Freeman makes her debut with the New York City Ballet in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, The Washington Ballet as part of Northrup Presents 10,000 Dreams – A Celebration of Asian Choreography, and the St. 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).