Edwin Outwater

Conductor Edwin Outwater is notable for his outreach activities, work with young musicians, and cross-genre collaborations. The latter has included frequent work with the metal band Metallica. Outwater was born on April 12, 1971, in Santa Monica, California. He attended Harvard University and graduated in 1993 with cum laude honors. He was an English major at Harvard, but his conducting career began at the school as he directed the Bach Society Orchestra. He also wrote music for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, an annual cross-dressing burlesque show. Outwater went on to the University of California at Santa Barbara, earning a master's degree in conducting after study with Heiichiro Ohyama and Paul Polivnick. After graduating, he served as assistant conductor of the Tulsa Philharmonic, principal conductor of the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival in Molise, Italy, and resident conductor and associate guest conductor of the Florida Philharmonic. His interest in youth music began to develop in Florida as he designed the Florida Philharmonic Family Series and Music for Youth program, attended by more than 40,000 fifth-grade students in South Florida. Outwater's work in rock music also began during this period as he served as conductor on the 1992 Metallica album Nothing Else Matters, his recording debut. From 2001 to 2005, Outwater served as music director of the San Francisco Youth Symphony, leading the group on a European tour that included performances in such august halls as the Vienna Musikverein, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. During this period, he was also resident conductor at the San Francisco Symphony, and he has continued to appear with that ensemble periodically. In San Francisco, he conducted heavily attended family concerts each year, and he led the orchestra's collaborations with Metallica in concert and on recordings. Outwater served as music director of Canada's Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2017; he continues to hold the post of conductor laureate there. He has made guest appearances with major orchestras in the U.S. and beyond, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Royal Philharmonic in London. He also assisted conductor Michael Tilson Thomas in two concerts by the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. As of the early 2020s, Outwater was the music director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 2022, he led the Chicago Symphony on the album Mason Bates: Philharmonia Fantastique -- The Making of the Orchestra.
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