One of North America’s most creative, dynamic, and engaging conductors, Edwin Outwater is music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario, Canada. Now in his fifth season, he has revitalized the orchestra and gained international attention for his innovative projects and brilliant performances. This season the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony released its first commercial recording in over 10 years, From Here On Out, featuring the music of Nico Muhly, Jonny Greenwood, and Richard Reed Parry (a KWS commission) on the Analekta label. The orchestra’s Intersections series has been widely praised for linking orchestral music to diverse musical genres and other creative disciplines.  This season’s concerts include collaborations with the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, folk singer Basia Bulat, and composer Nicole Lizée in a concert exploring Prog Rock.  In the 2009-2010 season, Mr. Outwater and the orchestra were invited by Koerner Hall at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music to be part of their subscription series for their opening season, and have performed there every season since. The 2009-2010 season also marked the opening of the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts in Kitchener, a venue that serves as the orchestra’s administrative offices, rehearsal space, and a multidisciplinary arts hub for the entire community.

This season, Mr. Outwater returns to the Chicago Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, New World Symphony, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and the Orquestra Nacional do Porto.  In the United States, Mr. Outwater has also conducted the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Baltimore, Houston, Detroit, Seattle, and many others.  In Canada, he has conducted the National Arts Centre Orchestra, as well as the symphonies of Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Victoria.  International appearances include the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the New Zealand Symphony, the Adelaide Symphony, the Malmö Symphony, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Orquestra Sinfonica de Xalapa, and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. In 2009 he made his professional opera debut with the San Francisco Opera conducting Verdi’s La Traviata. This season, he conducts Amahl and the Night Visitors at Lincoln Center with the Little Orchestra Society of New York. He has participated as Associate Conductor in both YouTube Symphony projects, at Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House.

Edwin Outwater was Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony from 2001-2006. While there, he worked closely with Michael Tilson Thomas, accompanied the orchestra on tour and conducted numerous concerts each season. He made his subscription debut in 2002 with Kurt Masur conducting Britten’s War Requiem, and has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Evelyn Glennie, and many others. On two occasions, Mr. Outwater stepped in for an ailing Michael Tilson Thomas, conducting performances of Stravinsky’s complete Pulcinella, as well as works by Beethoven, Wagner and Cherubini. In July 2006 Mr. Outwater conducted the world premiere performance and recording of The Composer is Dead, by Nathaniel Stookey and Lemony Snicket which was recently released HarperCollins. In 2008, his recording with the San Francisco Symphony of the music of Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate was released to wide acclaim. He returned to the San Francisco Symphony for subscription performances in the 2009-2010 season.

From 2001-2005 Mr. Outwater was Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. During his tenure, he led the orchestra in all of their concerts as well as on tour to Europe in the summer of 2004. During the tour, the orchestra made its debut at Vienna’s Musikverein, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and returned to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Before joining the San Francisco Symphony, Mr. Outwater served as Resident Conductor and Associate Guest Conductor of the Florida Philharmonic. He has also held posts as Associate Conductor of the Festival-Institute at Round Top (a renowned music-training program based in Texas), Principal Conductor of the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival in Molise, Italy, and Assistant Conductor of the Tulsa Philharmonic.

Mr. Outwater’s work in music education and community outreach has been widely acclaimed. In 2004 his education programs at the San Francisco Symphony were given the Leonard Bernstein award for excellence in educational programming, and his Chinese New Year Program was given the MET LIFE award for community outreach. In Kitchener-Waterloo Mr. Outwater redesigned the orchestra’s education series and initiated myriad community connections. At the San Francisco Symphony, he conducted Family Concerts, Adventures in Music performances, which are heard by more than 25,000 students from San Francisco schools each year, and Concerts for Kids, which serve students from throughout Northern California. In Florida, Mr. Outwater designed the Florida Philharmonic Family Series and its Music for Youth program, which was heard annually by more than 40,000 fifth-grade students in South Florida. He appears frequently with training orchestras and music festivals throughout the United  States and across the world, including the New World Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the National Music Camp of Australia, the National Youth Orcehstra of New Zealand, the Music Academy of the West, the National Orchestral Institute, the Festival-Institute at Round Top, and the Mannes Conservatory Orchestra. Mr. Outwater has served as music director of the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, and has been on the faculties of the University of Tulsa, the Idyllwild Arts Academy, and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A native of Santa Monica, California, Edwin Outwater attended Harvard University, graduating cum laude in 1993 with a degree in English literature. While at Harvard, he was music director of the Bach Society Orchestra, the Harvard Din and Tonics (an acclaimed a cappella group), and wrote the music for the 145th annual production of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. He received his master’s degree in conducting from UC Santa Barbara, where he studied with Heiichiro Ohyama, and Paul Polivinick. He also studied music theory and composition with John Stewart, Joel Feigin, and Leonard Stein.