Edwin Outwater led a UNC Health Summerfest concert with Ben Folds in 2019. He conducted a classical program in 2015 featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 and his King Stephen Overture. Those concerts also included Stravinsky's "Dumbarton Oaks" concerto and Lo, a work co-commissioned by NCS and performed with the composer, Caroline Shaw, as violin soloist.

    Conductor, curator, and producer Edwin Outwater is, in the words of his mentor Michael Tilson Thomas, “one of the most innovative conductors on the scene today.” As Music Director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he oversees their ensembles and shapes the artistic initiatives of the institution as a whole. He is also Music Director Laureate of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, which he led from 2007-2017.
   Recent appearances include performances with The Cleveland Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra, the symphonies of San Diego, Houston, and Seattle, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. For the National Symphony Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Concert at The Kennedy Center, he collaborated with a cast of artists including Common, Renée Fleming, Audra MacDonald, and Christian McBride.
   Outwater has appeared internationally with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, the New Zealand and Adelaide symphony orchestras, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa, and Hong Kong Sinfonietta. In Canada, he has led orchestras including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, among others. This July, he will make his debut at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall with Cynthia Erivo. In October, he will premiere his newest production, Symphony of Terror, with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and co-host and collaborator Peaches Christ.
   Outwater holds a long association with the San Francisco Symphony. The 2021/22 season includes concert appearances with Boyz II Men and the world premiere of a Judy Garland Centennial concert. Previously, he was San Francisco Symphony Resident Conductor, Director of Summer Concerts, and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.
      This year, Outwater conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in their recording of Mason Bates’s Philharmonia Fantastique and serves as Associate Conductor for A Gathering of Friends with John Williams, Yo-Yo Ma, and the New York Philharmonic. He serves as co-songwriter, arranger, orchestrator, and keyboardist on Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett’s solo debut EP, Portals. 
   A native of Santa Monica, California, Outwater graduated cum laude in English literature from Harvard University, where he was music director of the Bach Society Orchestra and the a cappella group Harvard Din and Tonics, and wrote the music for the 145th annual production of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. He received his degree in conducting from the University of California, Santa Barbara.