Conductor Kedrick Armstrong Joins Kirshbaum Associates

Armstrong has joined the Manhattan-based artist management agency for worldwide representation 

The 29-year-old conductor Kedrick Armstrong is the Creative Partner and Principal Conductor of Illinois’s Knox-Galesburg Symphony, and was recently appointed the ninth Music Director of the Oakland Symphony in its almost 100-year history. 

Armstrong’s recent concert highlights include making his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut, premiering The Factotum, and appearing at the Opera Theater of St. Louis as one of the festival’s assistant conductors. Other engagements include concerts with the Oakland Symphony and the DePaul Opera Theater.

He has also served as assistant conductor at Chicago Opera Theater and Music Director at Wheaton College’s Opera Mainstage. This season, he will lead members of the Chicago Symphony in Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Voodoo Violin Concerto No. 1. 

As an advocate for minority voices and underrecognized composers of color in earlier eras in classical music, Armstrong has also been a guest speaker and received a research fellowship with the American Music Research Center, studying Black female composers within the Helen Walker-Hill Collection. 

In the education field, he has spent several seasons as the music mentor for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Urban League’s initiative EmpowerYouth!

 He also worked with the Ravinia Festival, the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, and Chicago Sinfonietta’s Audience Matters.

Holding bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wheaton College and the University of Colorado-Boulder, he graduated from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities. 

Armstrong has studied with and assisted or covered conductors including John Nelson, Mei-Ann Chen, Michael Morgan, Cliff Colnot, Lidiya Yankovskaya, and Daniela Candillari, among others.

His accolades include being named one of The Washington Post’s “22 for ’22: Composers and Performers to Watch,” and Musical America’s “Artist of the Month.”

“What an honor it is to join the illustrious roster of Kirshbaum Associates!” Armstrong posted on Facebook. “I’m grateful to the entire team for wrapping their arms around me. This is going to be an incredible journey!”

A recent video of Armstrong conducting the World Premiere of Irene Britton Smith’s Sinfonietta, can be viewed below.