biography

Will Cabison is a conductor, pianist, and composer.

They returned this season as a Cover Conductor at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, following their guest conducting debut with the orchestra in the 2023/24 season. Earlier this season, they served as Assistant Music Director for Waiting for Lefty at New York University. Previously, Will was Guest Supporting Conductor for Charles Ives’s Fourth Symphony at Lincoln Center with the Mannes Orchestra, as well as Assistant Conductor and Assistant Coach for L’enfant et les sortilèges at Mannes Opera. Their past work also includes Assistant Conductor for La Calisto (Mannes Opera), Assistant Conductor and Guest Conductor for In the Green (Mannes Opera), Guest Supporting Conductor for David Lang’s crowd out (Los Angeles Philharmonic Association), and Assistant Conductor of the Los Robles Master Chorale.

Will is an experienced vocal collaborative pianist, adept in classical, contemporary, and musical theatre repertoire. As a composer, their vocal work Feet Searching for Sound premiered at Carnegie Hall in spring 2024, alongside the Lincoln Center premiere of their chamber piece In Memoriam: Miki Gorman. Their choral work Moonrise won the 2016 Los Angeles Master Chorale Young Composers Contest and premiered at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

In addition to conducting and composing, Will serves as a Teaching Artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Outside of their professional work, they are a distance runner with Front Runners New York and dedicate their time to the queer community through the team’s Brooklyn Committee.

Will is currently a candidate for the Professional Studies Diploma in Orchestral Conducting at the Mannes School of Music, studying with David Hayes. Prior to this, they earned a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the same program and received the Carl Schachter Award in conducting. Before that, they graduated with Latin honors from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Music with a major in Piano Performance. Originally from Los Angeles, they now reside in Brooklyn.