Laura Jackson has recently been appointed Music Director of the Reno Philharmonic and is excited to begin a new journey of great music making with its musicians while building friendships with the people of Reno, Sparks, Tahoe, Carson City and all of North Western Nevada. Laura has described music as a transformative art that feeds the souls of individuals, nurtures the core identity of a city, and expands the imaginations of young people.

Laura comes to the Reno Philharmonic after two years of guest conducting ensembles across the globe, including the orchestras of Atlanta, Phoenix, Berkeley, Detroit, Modesto, North and South Carolina, Boca Raton, Sacramento, Fairfax, Alabama, Toronto, Baltimore, San Antonio, and Winnipeg, among others. Her recent international engagements have included a concert with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and a recording session with the Bournemouth Symphony in England.

From 2004-2007, Laura served as Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony where she conducted all types of concerts including Classical Subscription Series performances, the Young People's Concerts, and “Symphony 360” concerts, which sought to show the orchestral experience from every angle through an entertaining mix of demonstrations and interviews.

Prior to her appointment in Atlanta, Laura studied conducting at the University of Michigan and participated in the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center in 2002 and 2003. As the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellow at Tanglewood, she conducted numerous concerts featuring both traditional and contemporary repertoire.

Laura spent her early childhood in Virginia and Pennsylvania before moving at age 11 to Plattsburgh NY where she grew up waterskiing, swimming, and sailing on Lake Champlain. She fell in love with the violin in public school and studied there until transferring to the North Carolina School for the Arts to finish high school. Laura pursued an undergraduate degree at Indiana University where she studied both violin and conducting, before moving to Boston in 1990 to freelance as a violinist and teach at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She won her first conducting position in 1992 with the Nashua Chamber Orchestra and served as Music Director there until 1998. In 2005, she earned her doctorate in orchestral conducting from the University of Michigan. During her time there, she served as Music Director of the Life Sciences Orchestra, made up of doctors, researchers, students, and staff of the university’s life sciences community.