Carolyn Watson

Originally from Sydney, Carolyn Watson is Music Director at the La Porte Symphony Orchestra in Indiana and is the Director Of Orchestras at the University Of Illinois. She has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra’s 2022-2023 Season and Music Director of the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra.

She has been the recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Prize, Opera Foundation Australia’s Bayreuth Opera Award, the Berlin New Music Opera Award, the Emmerich Kálmán International Operetta Conducting Competition in Budapest and a member of the Dallas Opera Institute for Women Conductors.

Her guest conducting engagements include concerts with the Austin Symphony, Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra, Kansas City Ballet, and World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburger Symphoniker, BBC Concert Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, she has conducted for Staatsoper Berlin, held a residency at the Israeli National Opera, assisted Sir Charles Mackerras on his final two productions at The Royal Opera Covent Garden and Glyndebourne Festival Opera and has conducted for Amarillo Opera, Lyric Opera Of Kansas City and Des Moines Metro Opera.

Carolyn holds a PhD in Performance (Conducting) from the University of Sydney where she studied under Imre Palló, studied further with David Zinman at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, and has been a member of the masterclasses of Marin Alsop, Peter Eötvös, Yoel Levi, Martyn Brabbins and Alex Polishchuk.