Nan Washburn is celebrating her 22nd anniversary season as Music Director of the Michigan Philharmonic. She is the winner of The American Prize in Orchestral Conducting, professional division 2013, The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music, professional division, 2016, and 19 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming from the League American Orchestras. She first came to national attention as a co-founder, the Artistic Director, and Associate Conductor of the San Francisco-based Women’s Philharmonic. As a leading authority and advocate for orchestral works by women, she has been recognized with the Distinguished Service Award from New York Women Composers; the Outstanding Local Hero Award from KQED, San Francisco; and the Jeanine C. Rae Award from NWMF in 2016. At NWMF she has conducted Kay Gardner’s Ouroboros, Mary Watkins’ The Initiate, and Nkeiru Okoye’s Phillis Wheately among many others.