Conner Gray Covington grateful to be known as ‘a musician who lives music’

Described by Yannick Nézet-Séguin as “a musician who lives the music,” American conductor Conner Gray Covington performs an unusually broad repertoire of orchestral, opera and film music ranging from the Classical era to the present day. 

Covington recently finished a four-year tenure as associate conductor of the Utah Symphony, based in Salt Lake, and principal conductor of the Deer Valley Music Festival, summer home of the Utah Symphony. He’s currently one of six finalists for the role of music director of Montana’s Billings Symphony. He is a five-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S.

In the 2025/2026 season, Covington makes his debuts with the Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony and Phoenix Symphony. In Chicago, he will lead the CSO in “How to Train Your Dragon” in Concert, for three live-to-picture performances Nov. 28-30.

No matter the format, he remains laser-focused on his mission. “It takes a long time to build trust with an audience, so you can venture off and offer more than just the standard bread-and-butter performances.” he said in an interview with Salt Lake magazine.

Also this season, Covington returns to the North Carolina Symphony, Portland (Oregon) Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Sarasota (Florida) Orchestra, Tucson (Arizona) Symphony and the Utah Symphony, where he maintains a close relationship.

With the Utah Symphony, Covington conducted the world premiere of Quinn Mason’s Trombone Concerto. While in Utah, Covington also led nearly 300 performances of classical subscription, educational, film, pops and family concerts, as well as tours throughout the state; he has returned several times each season as a guest conductor. Other guest-conducting stints include appearances with the Hawaii Symphony, Knoxville (Tennessee) Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Tallahassee (Florida) Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony, as well as the Bellingham Festival of Music in Washington and the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming.

His operatic engagements include Britten’s The Turn of the Screw for the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston; Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and the world premiere of Rene Orth’s Empty the House at the Curtis Opera Theatre in Philadelphia, and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro for his debut with Utah Opera. He has also conducted more than 20 feature films with orchestra including “Frozen,” “Singing in the Rain,” “Casablanca,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Star Wars” and “Jurassic Park.”

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. Covington lives in Boston with his two cats, Razel and Oreo.