Laura Jackson

Laura Jackson is a conductor scheduled to lead the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in upcoming concerts. Her programs mix well-known symphonic repertoire, including Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar, with works by contemporary composers such as Carlos Simon, Stacy Garrop, and Jennifer Higdon. Listeners can expect a mix of Romantic-era staples and newer American concert music across her scheduled appearances.

Across these programs, Jackson pairs core Romantic repertoire with living composers. The Madison concerts open with Carlos Simon's AMEN!, a short concert opener built on gospel-inflected brass writing, before moving into Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, a work built around a soloist's long, singing melodies over rich string chords. Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony closes that program with a famous four-note "fate" motif that returns across all four movements. Her Oklahoma City program pairs Stacy Garrop's Goddess Triptych, a piece drawn from myth, with Beethoven's compact First Piano Concerto and Elgar's Enigma Variations, a set of musical portraits of the composer's friends. The Beethoven's Fifth program mixes Barber's brisk overture, Jennifer Higdon's concerto writing, an orchestral arrangement of a pop standard, and Beethoven's famously terse Fifth Symphony, opening with four hammered notes that recur throughout.