These concerts are Conner Gray Covington's North Carolina Symphony debut.

   Conner Gray Covington recently completed a four-year tenure with the Utah Symphony as Associate Conductor and as Principal Conductor of the Deer Valley Music Festival. During his tenure in Utah, Covington conducted nearly 300 performances of classical, education, film, pops, and family concerts, as well as tours throughout the state. This season he returns to the Utah Symphony as a guest conductor on several occasions and debuts with the Amarillo Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and Idaho State-Civic Symphony, as well as North Carolina Symphony.
   Previously, Covington was a Conducting Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. There he worked closely with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, with whom he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2016, and the Curtis Opera Theatre—while also being mentored by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He began his career as Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. A four-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., he was a featured conductor in the 2016 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview presented by the League of American Orchestras.
   Born in Louisiana, Covington grew up in East Tennessee and began playing the violin at age 11. He completed high school at the renowned High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas. He then went on to study violin and conducting at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in violin performance. He continued his studies at the Eastman School of Music where he earned a master’s degree in orchestral conducting and was awarded the Walter Hagen Conducting Prize.