Proud grandmother, Cornelia Rickenbacker Freeman '33 and Dr. Erin Freeman  

Dr. Erin Freeman, Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony, visited Columbia College while in town for a guest appearance with the South Carolina Philharmonic. Her grandmother, Cornelia Rickenbacker Freeman '33, a great patron of music arts in the state and a Columbia College alumna, was recently featured in Columns magazine. Columbia College voice students seized the chance to hear Dr. Freeman’s unique perspective as a rising female star in the male-dominated field of orchestral conducting.

Equally at home in the orchestral, choral and opera worlds, Dr. Freeman is also Artistic Advisor of the Richmond Symphony. Her responsibilities include conducting subscription concerts, leading the Genworth Financial Symphony Pops Series, and artistic direction for the Symphony’s education initiatives including its four youth orchestras.  In addition, she holds the James Erb Choral Chair as Director of the 130-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus.

An enthusiastic champion of music education for all ages Dr. Freeman has served as Director of Orchestras at the critically acclaimed Baltimore School for the Arts, conductor for the National High School Music Institute Chorus at Northwestern University, lecturer for the National Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestraorg, Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic, Resident Conductor at Peabody Conservatory, and Music Director of Collegium Vocale Collegium Vocale, a competitively auditioned choral ensemble located at Emory University in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.  

At the age of seventeen, Dr. Freeman was accepted as the youngest member of the Atlanta Symphony Chorus, under the direction of the late Robert Shaw, and continued that association singing with the Atlanta Symphony Chamber Chorus and the Robert Shaw Memorial Singers.  With a voice that the Boston Globe called “Virginal of timbre, pure of pitch,” Dr. Freeman has performed as concert soloist under the batons of Mr. Shaw, James Conlon, and Ann Howard Jones, and on the opera stage as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Mlle. Silberklang in The Impresario and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas.

Winner of numerous awards, including the Peabody’s Baltimore Music Club Prize in Performance and the Women’s Philharmonic Conducting Scholarship, Dr. Freeman received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Northwestern Universityl, a Masters degree in Conducting from the Boston University School for the Arts, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting with Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar at the Peabody Conservatory. Previously, she studied and performed in master classes with Robert Shaw, Helmut Rilling, Robert Spano, Jonathan Carney and Murry Sidlin.

Dr. Freeman (far left) and Dr. Johnston (far right) meet with voice students.

Left to Right: President Whitson, James Freeman, Cornelia Rickenbacker Freeman,
John Freeman, Jeannie Freeman, and Dr. Erin Freeman.