Solti Foundation U.S. Names 16 Conductors for 2026 Career Assistance Awards
Board chair Penny Van Horn and awards committee chair Elizabeth Buccheri announced the selections from over 60 applicants.
The Solti Foundation U.S. has named 16 young American conductors as recipients of its 2026 Career Assistance Award, according to an announcement from Board Chair Penny Van Horn and Artistic and Awards Committee Chair Elizabeth Buccheri. The honorees, ranging in age from 24 to 36, include Harris Han, Nathan Blair, Kamna Gupta, Andrew Kim, William Langley, Geoffrey Loff, Na'Zir McFadden, Brett Miller, Luke Poeppel, Tristan Rais-Sherman, Ilya Ram, Shira Samuels-Shragg, Nicholas Sharma, Euan Shields, Molly Turner, and Sunny Xia. Nine of the conductors are receiving recognition from the Foundation for the first time, while the remaining recipients have been acknowledged in previous years.
Of the 2026 cohort there are numerous titles held, including five music directors, one orchestra founder, four Assistant Conductors, one Fellow Conductor, two Resident Conductors and three Associate conductors, as well as many fellowships, with the Awardees working worldwide.
Ms. Buccheri, long-serving leader of the Foundation's Artistic and Awards Committee said, 'The Solti Foundation U.S. received over 60 plus applicants this season, making for another exciting selection and review process. We were thrilled to have had 14 women conductors apply this year. It is inspiring to have such a creative and focused group with such diverse backgrounds apply to the Foundation; one can only imagine what they will accomplish! The Foundation continues to follow the careers of all our awardees, and to provide information and encouragement. Congratulations to all the 2026 Career Assistance Award recipients!'
The 2026 Awardees
Harris Han, 25. Korean-American conductor, pianist, and violinist Harris Han currently serves as Assistant Conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Opera. In the past season, he served as Assistant Conductor with the Palm Beach Symphony, Adjunct Professor of Conducting at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, Violinist with the Florida Grand Opera, and Guest Artist at the Eastern Festival of Music. In 2025, he was the 1st prize winner of the International Conducting Competition at the University of Almeria, Spain, from which he won engagements in Romania, Italy, and Poland. He is also the recent winner of the Seoul Philharmonic Conducting Fellowship, leading the orchestra in Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra at Lotte Concert Hall following a recommendation from Jaap van Zweden. Upcoming concerts include leading a PGM Productions' A Symphonic Night at the Movies Presents The Wizard of Oz in November with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and guesting with Poland's Kalisz Filharmonia. In May 2025, Han graduated from the Frost School of Music, University of Miami, with a Master of Music, Orchestra Conducting. He holds a Bachelor of Music, Piano and Violin Performance, from Ithaca College, where he studied piano with Charis Dimaras, and violin with Calvin Wiersma. This is Harris Han's second Career Assistance Award from The Solti Foundation U.S., having received his first in 2025.
Nathan Blair, 32. Nathan Blair is an American opera and symphonic conductor. He recently served as Second Kapellmeister at the Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar and as Kapellmeister and Solorepetitor at the Saarländisches Staatstheater in Saarbrücken. As a guest conductor, he has led repertoire performances at Stadttheater Bern, Theater Magdeburg, Theater Kiel, and Theater Bremen, among others. He was also a Assistant Conductor at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg for several productions and was invited to prepare the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg for a concert tour. Blair holds a Master of Music in Conducting from Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music in Collaborative Piano from the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Catholic University of America. Conducting studies were with Arthur Fagen, David Effron, David Neely, and Murry Sidlin. The 2025 First Place winner of The American Prize in Opera Conducting, this is Blair's second Career Assistance Award; he received his first in 2024.
Kamna Gupta, 33. Kamna Gupta is a French-born American Prize-winning conductor whose work spans operatic, orchestral, and choral repertoire. Recent operatic engagements include debuts with Vancouver Opera, Madison Opera, and Highlands Opera Studio, as well as leading the creation of a reduction of Poul Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale at The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. A champion for new music, Gupta has conducted several world premieres at Spoleto Festival USA, the Glimmerglass Festival, and Los Angeles Opera and Lincoln Center Summer for the City Festival. In addition to her performance work, she is regularly invited to workshop new operas with American Lyric Theater and Beth Morrison Projects. Upcoming engagements include conducting The Importance of Being Earnest at Chicago Opera Theater and continuing her relationship as a guest conductor with the Manhattan School of Music. Gupta holds a Masters of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Princeton University. Gupta is a first-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from The Solti Foundation U.S.
Andrew Kim, 32. Andrew Kim is Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra and Director of Berkshire Symphony and Artist in Residence in Orchestral and Instrumental Activities at Williams College. He also serves on the faculty of the Conducting Institute, a comprehensive training program led by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Kim has served as an Assistant Conductor for Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Cover Conductor for the Minnesota Orchestra, and as Co-Music Director and Instructor of Record for the University of Minnesota Campus Orchestras. Upcoming engagements include leading his orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, at Carnegie Hall, New York City, in November, and a return (re-invitation) to guest conduct a Pops Concert with Dayton Philharmonic. Kim is a Doctor of Musical Arts (ABD) from the University of Minnesota School of Music, holds a Master of Music from Ithaca College School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts in Music, with a minor in English Literature, from Swarthmore College. Kim is the recipient of a 2025 Elizabeth Buccheri Opera Residency at the Daytona Opera from The Solti Foundation U.S. This is Kim's third Career Assistance Award, having also received the Award in 2024 and 2025.
William R. Langley, 35. William R. Langley currently serves as Resident Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Staff Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. In 2021, he served as Resident Conductor with Cincinnati opera. In 2009, he founded the Wolf River Chamber Orchestra and in 2011 the Memphis Repertory Orchestra. Langley led over fifty performances with the MRO during his decade-long tenure, during which the orchestra served as Orchestra in Residence at the Buckman Performing Arts Center. Recent highlights include his European Debut with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, his Toledo Symphony Orchestra debut, and an international tour of Spain with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. Upcoming engagements include making his Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Delta Subscription Series debut, and leading Cincinnati's CCM Opera production of Ariadne auf Naxos. Langley has largely completed coursework for his Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting and holds a Master of Music in Orchestra Conducting, both from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, and a Bachelor of Music in Music History from the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, University of Memphis. Langley is a first-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from The Solti Foundation U.S.
Geoffrey Loff, 36. Geoffrey Loff is the newly appointed Assistant to the Music Director at Komische Oper Berlin, and most recently served on the music staff of the renowned Staatsoper Berlin. Recent engagements include the Vienna Staatsoper, the Stara Zagora State Opera, and the Pazardzhik Philharmonic. In previous seasons, Loff served as a guest cover conductor at San Francisco Opera, Assistant Conductor at Houston Grand Opera, and Music Director of Houston Grand Opera's HGOco. Upcoming engagements include returns to Komische Oper Berlin, Opera Orlando, and his debut conducting Don Giovanni with Teatro Nuovo at Lincoln Center. Loff is a graduate of the prestigious Aspen Conducting Academy, the Houston Grand Opera Studio, and the Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Program. He holds a Master and Bachelor of Music degrees from the University of Miami. Loff is a recipient of the 2025 Olga Forrai Foundation Career Conducting Grant, and winner of Second Prize at the 2023 Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition (Austria). This is Loff's second Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., having received his first in 2023.
Na'Zir McFadden, 26. McFadden serves as Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony and Conducting Fellow of the San Diego Symphony. Previously he served three seasons as Assistant Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra. He has guested with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Nashville Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in a recording project with violinist Hilary Hahn, and maintains an ongoing artistic relationship with Philadelphia Ballet. Highlights of the 2026–27 season include a two-week residency with the Louisville Orchestra conducting symphonies by Stravinsky, Bizet, and Mendelssohn, alongside return engagements with the Philadelphia Ballet and Houston Ballet. McFadden holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, and later studied with Cliff Colnot at DePaul University. In 2020, he became the Robert L. Poster Conducting Apprentice of the New York Youth Symphony and was appointed the inaugural Apprentice Conductor of Philadelphia Ballet. McFadden is a first-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from The Solti Foundation U.S.
Brett Miller, 24. Brett Miller is a conductor, accomplished concert organist and Silent Film Accompanist. He recently served as Assistant Conductor for the Eastman Philharmonia and for the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra in Rochester, New York. Prior to this, he served as Artistic Director and Music Director of the Empire Film and Media Ensemble, a nonprofit based in Rochester, NY, that advocates for the education, performance, and production of film music. Recent conducting engagements include appearances with the Eastman Philharmonia and Eastman School Symphony Orchestra. Miller is also an Associate Organist at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, where he plays the world's largest pipe organ. Miller was a conducting Fellow at Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, where he participated in Masterclasses with the National Arts Center Orchestra and the Orchestre Metropolitan. A finalist in the American Theatre Organ Society's Young Organist Competition, Miller studied organ with renowned organist Jelani Eddington and piano with Beth Crompton. He studied film accompaniment with Ben Model and Bernie Anderson. Miller holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting (2026) and a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and Piano, both from the Eastman School of Music. Miller is a first-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from The Solti Foundation U.S.
Luke Poeppel, 26. American German conductor and pianist Luke Poeppel is the Ensemble Conductor for the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago beginning this season, having recently concluded two seasons as Assistant Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony. With the Kansas City Symphony, he has conducted performances featuring Cody Fry, Project Trio, and Capathia Jenkins, as well as a number of Family & Education concerts. Recent engagements include serving as the Associate Conductor for Cerrone & Fleischmann's opera In a Grove at the 2025 Prototype Festival, stepping in to conduct the full run of performances, and as the Assistant Conductor for Tosca and Sunday in the Park with George at the Glimmerglass Festival (conducting the latter for its final performance). Previous engagements include the Reno Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Orchestra of the League of Composers, and the Washington Square New Music Ensemble. Poeppel has served as a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and Juilliard Opera. This summer 2026, Poeppel returns as a conductor in Glimmerglass's Resident Artist Program to assist in productions of Giacosa's Madame Butterfly and Greg Pierce's Fellow Travelers. Poeppel holds a Master's in Conducting from Eastman School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts from New York University. This is Poeppel's second Career Assistance Award; he received his first in 2025.
Tristan Rais-Sherman, 36. Tristan Rais-Sherman recently served as a Conducting Fellow in the inaugural cohort of San Diego Symphony's Conducting Fellowship Program. Prior to this, he served as Assistant Conductor for The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has appeared with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Bamberger Symphoniker, St. Louis Symphony, Dartington Festival Orchestra, Aurora Festival, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Billings Symphony, and Berlin Sinfonietta. Rais-Sherman recently guested with the Harbin Symphony Orchestra (China) and served as Assistant Conductor for several engagements with San Diego Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra as well as assisting Maestro James Gaffigan in a production of Massenet's Manon at Les Arts Valencia. In the 2026–2027 season, Rais-Sherman returns to the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Billings Symphony. Rais-Sherman holds an Artist Diploma in Orchestral Conducting from New England Conservatory, where he was the Inaugural Artist Diploma recipient. He holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from Ithaca College. This is his fourth Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., having received the award in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Ilya Ram, 35. Ilya Ram is the Music Director of the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, where he has launched an ambitious three-year artistic arc that explores Reflection, Moments, and Destiny - a journey connecting the past, present, and future of orchestral storytelling. Previous posts include Music Director of Akademische Philharmonie Heidelberg, Germany; Music Director, Leipzig University Orchestra, Germany; and Guest Resident Conductor/Kapellmeister, Theater Chemnitz & Robert-Schumann Philharmonie, Germany. Ram graduated cum laude from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv and earned his master's degree in orchestral conducting from the Hochschule für Musik 'Carl Maria von Weber' Dresden, later completing the Advanced Professional Training for Conductors at the UdK Berlin. Ram is a first-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from The Solti Foundation U.S.
Shira Samuels-Shragg, 29. American conductor Shira Samuels-Shragg is Fellow Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She previously served as Assistant Conductor of Spokane Symphony. Recent highlights include debuts with the North Carolina Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico, Chattanooga Symphony, and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and her subscription debut with the Spokane Symphony. Samuels-Shragg has also guest conducted such orchestras as the Corpus Christi, Irving, and South Bend symphonies, and served as cover conductor for the St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic. Upcoming engagements include her debuts with Sinfonieorchester Basel, Orchestra Haydn, and Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. Samuels-Shragg is a former participant in Dallas Opera's 2024 Hart Institute for Women Conductors. She is co-founder and former Music Director of the Plano Symphony's Summer Youth Orchestra Camp and served as Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra USA in 2022, returning as Associate Conductor in 2024. She holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a minor in German from Swarthmore College, where she studied conducting with Andrew Hauze and piano with Marcantonio Barone. She is a first-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from The Solti Foundation U.S.
Nicholas Sharma, 31. Nicholas Sharma currently serves as the Resident Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. He recently served as Assistant Conductor of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the South Dakota Symphony Youth Orchestra for the 2024–25 season. Recent conducting highlights include making his Toronto Symphony Orchestra subscription series debut, serving as Cover Conductor for performances with the Verbier Festival Orchestra and Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Center Orchestra, and the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, guesting with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, and debut performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Eugene Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming Engagements include conducting the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in a January subscription week program featuring a World Première by Canadian composer Andrew James Clark, and a November Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra concert featuring Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10. A former Conducting Fellow of the Eugene Symphony Orchestra and Aspen Music Festival, Sharma holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from the Eastman School of Music, a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Oregon, and a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the Eastman School of Music. Sharma is a first-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from The Solti Foundation U.S.
Euan Shields, 28. Japan-born American conductor Euan Shields is Associate Conductor of Sun Valley Music Festival and Founder of Strata Orchestra. He recently completed his tenure as Assistant Conductor of Great Britain's The Hallé and as Music Director of The Hallé Youth Orchestra. Recent highlights with The Hallé include the orchestra's July concert at Buxton Octagon Hall, the Nottingham season finale at the Royal Concert Hall, and conducting a program of Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms in Hanley Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent. Additional recent engagements include debuts leading the Strata Orchestra's founding concert in Manchester, UK, this June 2026, with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo, with the Osaka Symphony Orchestra (Japan debut), and conducting the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra for the 2025 Final Round of the Aeolus Wind Competition in Düsseldorf, Germany. Among Shields's honors are First Prize at the 2023 Siemens Hallé International Conducting Competition, which led to his current appointments with the orchestra, and Second Prize in the KNSO International Conducting Competition. He holds a Master of Music in Conducting from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from the Herb Alpert School of Music, University of California Los Angeles. This is Shields's fourth Career Assistance Award, having previously received awards in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Molly Turner, 28. Molly Turner serves as Associate Conductor of Minnesota Orchestra in the 2026-27 season and is a 2026-28 Award Recipient of the Taki Alsop Fellowship. Recent engagements include the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Green Umbrella new music
