About Us
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 2026-2027 season, Covington returns to Utah Opera to conduct their production of Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI. He also debuts with the Billings Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Paducah Symphony and returns to the Greenville Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. Covington also returns to the Utah Symphony where he maintains a close relationship after completing a four-year tenure as Associate Conductor and Principal Conductor of the Deer Valley Music Festival. Other notable recent engagements include the Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony, Houston Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony.
During his tenure with the Utah Symphony, Conner 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 Hawai’i Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony as well as the Bellingham Festival of Music and the Grand Teton Music Festival. Conner 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.
Conner’s operatic engagements include Britten’s THE TURN OF THE SCREW for the New England Conservatory of Music, 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 Casablanca, E.T the Extraterrestrial, How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic Park, and Raiders of the Lost Arc.
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. He graduated from the renowned High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas, and went on to study violin with Dr. Martha Walvoord and conducting with Dr. Clifton Evans at the University of Texas at Arlington where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in violin performance.
Conner currently lives in Boston with his two cats, Razel and Oreo.