Artistic Director & Conductor

Jason Weinberger is an orchestra conductor who works with diverse organizations across the globe to create meaningful connections and vibrant experiences around music.

Jason’s primary musical focus is wcfsymphony in Iowa. Under his leadership as artistic director the orchestra is known for its programmatic range and artistic quality. Jason and wcfsymphony commission and perform a wide variety of American music by artists including Chris Thile, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Timo Andres, Adam Schoenberg, Daniel Roumain, Philip Glass, Gabriel Kahane and a host of Iowa composers. At wcfsymphony Jason also leads collaborations with the world's leading solo performers including Yo-Yo Ma, Brandi Carlile, David Shifrin, David Krakauer, Matt Haimovitz, Simone Dinnerstein, and Awadagin Pratt. Jason’s singular history with wcfsymphony includes a term as CEO of the organization, extensive community project leadership, and a generation-spanning commitment to youth musicians and listeners.

Jason is known internationally for his work with contemporary artists and mediums. He is the conductor for Grammy-winning singer songwriter Brandi Carlile and they appear together regularly at orchestras including Oregon Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Colorado Symphony at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Jason has led collaborations with a host of other artists and bands including Gary Kelley, Orquesta Alto Maiz, Mochilla, and PROJECT Trio. He is also a film conductor and has led live performances Empire Strikes Back, Black Panther, Fantasia, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Wizard of Oz, Jane, and numerous Harry Potter films.

Jason began his professional career as a cover conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra and subsequently performed with the NSO at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He also led the Kennedy Center/National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute. While in the mid-Atlantic Jason directed the orchestra program at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Other notable affiliations include the Louisville Orchestra, were he was the recipient of a national Bruno Walter Grant as resident conductor. Jason has conducted at historic concert venues across Europe and Asia, as well as at several universities and All-State orchestra festivals in the United States.

Jason is a native of Los Angeles, where he studied clarinet with Yehuda Gilad at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts. Jason’s early summer music experiences included Apple Hill and Eastern Music Festival. Jason excelled as an undergraduate and graduate student at Yale University, receiving a bachelor’s with academic distinction in intellectual history alongside several university-wide awards, followed by a master’s degree in clarinet performance with David Shifrin and harpsichord studies. In addition to leading multiple Yale student orchestra series and Yale Symphony events, Jason also received university support for The Conductor’s Institute, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and a three-month research fellowship in Vienna. The zenith of Jason’s musical education was his life-defining work with Gustav Meier at the Peabody Conservatory, where he was a recipient of the Peabody Graduate Conducting Fellowship and a Peabody Career Grant. Other conducting mentors include James Ross at Yale, Leonard Slatkin at National Conducting Institute, David Zinman at Aspen Music Festival, and Donald Thulean at the League of American Orchestras.