American/Canadian conductor Andrew Crust has developed a versatile international career as a conductor of orchestral, opera, ballet, film, and pops programs. 

 

In his sixth season as Music Director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra, Crust programs and conducts the Grand Series, Pops, and educational series and has led collaborations with soloists such as Charles Yang, Geneva Lewis, Amit Peled, Sandeep Das, Awadagin Pratt, and Laquita Mitchell. Under his leadership, the orchestra has enjoyed its most diverse programming to date, engaged in new recording projects, and commissioned new works. Crust leads or collaborates in many innovative community and educational events, including free chamber music performances for children at the public library, “Mornings with the Maestro” and, recently, the entire LSO performed at a local prison with a choir of one hundred inmates.

 

In his third season as Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Crust programs and conducts a diverse array of performances throughout the state, collaborates with world-class soloists such as Sir Stephen Hough, Béla Fleck, Bella Hristova, Simone Porter, Joshua Roman, Adam Tendler, Jennifer Koh, and Tracy Silverman and conducted the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s new piano concerto “Sounding” in May of 2024. Crust also led efforts to create a new Pops series, revitalized the Young Person’s Concert programming, and continues to pursue collaborations with various arts organizations in Vermont. 

 

In the United States, Crust has performed as guest conductor with the symphony orchestras of San Diego, Arkansas, Hartford, Memphis, Rockford, Elgin, Chattanooga, Billings, Bozeman, Sewannee, Wichita, Mostly Modern Festival, and others. In Canada, he has performed as a guest with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic, l’Orchestre Métropolitain, and the symphony orchestras of Vancouver, Nova Scotia, Winnipeg, Laval, Vancouver Island, and Saskatoon. 

 

Abroad, he has performed with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Moravian Philharmonic, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile.

Crust is equally at ease in the pit, having conducted ballet with Ballet BC with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ballet Memphis, and the New Ballet Ensemble, and opera with Opera McGill, College Light Opera Company, Boulder Opera Company, and others. As a Pops conductor, Crust has collaborated with such artists as Rufus Wainwright, Steven Page, Tony DeSare, Michael Bolton, Dee Daniels, Cirque de la Symphonie, and the United States Jazz Ambassadors, and many others. Crust has also established himself as a conductor of films with orchestra. 

 

Crust is a 2020 winner of the Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award. In 2021, he was awarded “Prémio a la Proyección” at the Llíria City of Music International Conducting Competition. In 2017, he was awarded first prize at the Accademia Chigiana by Daniele Gatti. He was a semifinalist for the Nestlé/Salzburg Festival’s Young Conductors Award competition and was selected by members of the Vienna Philharmonic as a winner of the Ansbacher Fellowship, including residency at the Salzburger Festspiele. 

 

Crust served as the Associate Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony in Canada from 2019-2022, where he led around forty-five performances with the VSO each season, and made dozens of recordings released on theconcerthall.ca. Crust returns frequently to the VSO as a guest conductor. 

 

Crust was the Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA) in 2017 and 2018, assisting Michael Tilson Thomas on an Asian tour, as well as Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop, and James Ross at Carnegie Hall and in a side-by-side performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

 

Crust is dedicated to exploring new ways of bringing the classical music experience into the 21st century through innovative programming and marketing, creating community-oriented and socially sensitive concert experiences, and performing in unique venues. Crust is a firm believer in meaningful music education, having produced and written a number of original educational programs with orchestras. As an arranger/orchestrator, Crust partnered with Schirmer to make orchestrations of a set of Florence Price’s art songs, premiered in February 2022, and has orchestrated works by Alma Mahler and Prokofiev, as well as many popular and educational selections.