Music Director / Conductor

MUSIC DIRECTOR / CONDUCTOR
The 2022-2023 season marks the ninth season for Anna Edwards as music director and conductor of the Saratoga Orchestra. Holding several positions as an artist/teacher in the Seattle area, Anna additionally serves as conductor, founder, and music director of the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra. Her performing groups have been recognized at the local, state and national levels. In 2014, Anna received 1st place for conducting in The American Prize, a national competition for conductors and musical ensembles community orchestra division and the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra received 2nd place in The American Prize community orchestra performance division. In 2016, Saratoga Orchestra was named as a finalist for the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music in the Professional Orchestra Division.

In the summer of 2017, Anna was co-founder and music director of the Pacific Northwest Conducting Institute . The week-long workshop based on Whidbey Island is geared to inspire orchestral conductors from varied and diverse backgrounds.

Anna received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in conducting at the University of Washington and studied conducting at the prestigious Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.