William Long - About

Conductor William Long continues to showcase his “masterful command of challenging, multi-stylistic works” (Opera News) with some of the world’s premier musical institutions. In 2024, he was awarded a Grammy for his work on the Metropolitan Opera’s recording of Terence Blanchard’s Champion and in 2023, he received a Career Assistance Grant from the Solti Foundation. Recent highlights include his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican, conducting Washington National Opera’s production of Carmen, the Centennial Open House Concert for San Francisco Opera and the world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones with Opera Theater Saint Louis and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.  

This upcoming season, Long returns to The Metropolitan Opera for a new production of Golijov’s Ainadamar as well as making his Carnegie Hall debut conducting The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble. Additional debuts include conducting at the Merola Opera Program and covering assignments with the San Francisco Symphony and Detroit Opera. Long will also continue his relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra as Cover Conductor where he has assisted in a wide variety of programs since 2020, working with Sir Simon Rattle, Gianandrea Noseda and John Wilson. He also continues his posts as Guest Conductor and Teaching Artist at the prestigious Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.

Long’s previous work has included covering Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones and Champion at The Metropolitan Opera, and appearances as Cover Conductor at the Kennedy Center for productions of La bohème, Carmen, Eugene Onegin, Candide, and the world premieres of Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up and Terence Blanchard’s Champion. A native of California, he has worked extensively with San Francisco Opera as Assistant Conductor on productions of Lohengrin, Arabella, Hänsel und Gretel, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and the world premiere of John Adams’ Antony and Clepatra. He has also worked with Los Angeles Opera as Cover Conductor for Gordon Getty’s Usher House and The Canterville Ghost.

From 2013-2018 Long served as Assistant Conductor at San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle, where he prepared productions of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and At the Statue of Venus, Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Tarik O’Regan’s Heart of Darkness, and Philip Glass’ Les enfants terribles, among other projects.

Long holds a B.A. in Piano Performance and an M.A. in Conducting from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he studied with Maria Ezerova and Nicole Paiement. He also studied with Harold Farberman at the Conductor’s Institute at Bard College and Vance George at Westminster Choir College.