"Mr. Blanchard has said his score is not a jazz opera, but an opera in jazz. His music bears out this description, conducted here stylishly by William Long." 

-New York Times (Critic’s Pick and Best of Classical Music 2019 list)

“Blanchard alternates sweeping romantic strings with driving jazz and blues, fueled by a rhythm section. Conductor William Long showed masterful command of this challenging, multi-stylistic work.”

-Opera News

“Marsalis set the orchestra off on a jaunty, jerky, heavily syncopated path. Expertly balanced by conductor William Long, the dissonant crunch and percussive funk of the Latin-inflected London Symphony Orchestra acted as the perfect foil to the warm flow of the tuba.”

-The Telegraph

“Wynton Marsalis’s Tuba Concerto, which starred the LSO’s principal player, Ben Thomson, was snappily conducted by William Long.”

-The Guardian

“Conductor William Long led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and a quartet of jazz rhythm players with idiomatic style, well-balanced playing and solid connections between pit and stage, all to excellent effect.”

-Saint Louis Dispatch

“Their contributions handsomely complement the beautiful performance of Blanchard’s score by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under the accomplished musical direction of William Long, who makes his OTSL debut.”

-Ladue News

“Charles’ tortured psychic journey flickers to theatrical life, sometimes, in the composer’s similarly jazz-inflected score, which sets a rhythm section of piano, bass, guitar and drums percolating amid soothing orchestral strings, conducted with assurance by William Long.”

-Chicago Classical Review

“The conductor William Long brings out the vitality and energy of the score.”

-The New Criterion

“William Long conducts the St. Louis Symphony along with a small jazz combo in what certainly sounds like an authoritative account of Mr. Blanchard's score.”

-Stage Left

“William Long conducted with an evident command of the variety of musical idioms Blanchard has stitched together.”

-Jay Harvey Upstage Blog

"Kudos to assistant conductor and chorus master William Long for his detailed training of the wonderful and moving male chorus”

- VOICE magazine