Bells, Brass & Bows

Described by Yannick Nézet-Séguin as “a musician who lives the music,” American conductor Conner Gray Covington performs an unusually broad repertory of symphonic, opera, and film repertoire ranging from Classical to the present day. In the 2025–2026 season, Covington debuts with the Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, and Phoenix Symphony. He also makes return visits to the North Carolina Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, and Tucson Symphony. Additionally, Covington returns to the Utah Symphony, where he maintains a close relationship after completing a successful four-year tenure as Associate Conductor and Principal Conductor of the Deer Valley Music Festival.

During his tenure with the Utah Symphony, Covington conducted nearly 300 performances of classical subscription, education, film, pops, and family concerts, as well as tours throughout the state, and has returned several times each season as a guest conductor since 2021. Other recent guest conducting includes appearances with the Knoxville Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony, as well as the Bellingham Festival of Music and the Grand Teton Music Festival. Covington is a five-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S. and was a featured conductor in the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview presented by the League of American Orchestras.

Covington’s recent concert engagements include Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, Mozart Symphony No. 36, “Linz”, Elgar Serenade for Strings, Britten Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, and Mason Bates Philharmonia Fantastique with the San Diego Symphony; Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade with the Knoxville Symphony; Dvořák Symphony No. 8 and Mozart Exsultate Jubilate with the Tallahassee Symphony; Richard Strauss Suite from Der Rosenkavalier and Brahms Symphony No. 2 with the Amarillo Symphony; and Ravel Mother Goose (complete ballet) at the Bellingham Festival of Music.

With the Utah Symphony, Covington has conducted the world premiere of Quinn Mason Trombone Concerto, Richard Strauss Don Juan, Barber Symphony No. 1, Debussy La Mer, Haydn Symphonies No. 49 and 88, Dvořák Symphonies No. 6 and No. 8, Beethoven Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 7, Mozart Symphonies No. 36, 39, and 40, Mendelssohn Symphonies No. 3 and 4, Handel Messiah, Ravel Mother Goose Suite, Stravinsky The Firebird (1919 Suite), Schumann Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish”, and Brahms Symphony No. 2.

Covington’s operatic engagements include Britten’s The Turn of the Screw for the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, The Rape of Lucretia and the world premiere of Rene Orth’s Empty the House at the Curtis Opera Theatre, and Le Nozze di Figaro for his debut with Utah Opera. He has also conducted more than twenty feature films with orchestra, including Frozen, Singing in the Rain, Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, and Jurassic Park.

Born in Louisiana, Covington studied conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, and the Aspen Music Festival, where his primary teachers included Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Neil Varon, and Robert Spano.

Covington currently lives in Boston with his two cats, Razel and Oreo.