Abbie Eads

Abbie Eads is quickly establishing herself as a young, vibrant conductor and cellist. Recently named Conductor-in-Residence of the NW Edvard Grieg Society, Abbie is excited to be able to combine her passion for music and her love of her Nordic heritage. 

Having conducted in various masterclasses throughout the world, she has worked with musicians from professional orchestras such as the New Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and the Lviv Philharmonic. Abbie has studied with highly-respected conductors and educators such as Ludovic Morlot, Larry Rachleff, David Alexander Rahbee, Donald Schleicher, and Michael Jinbo.

This season she will be conducting and performing in collaboration with ensembles like Minot Symphony Orchestra, Western Plains Opera, Minot Chamber Chorale, and Dakota Pro Music. Her current work as Development Officer for the Minot State University Foundation provides her a unique opportunity to inspire more people to become supporters of the arts.

Previously Abbie was the Director of Music and Liturgy at Seattle’s Our Lady of the Lake Parish and Director of Orchestras and Adjunct Professor at Pierce College in Puyallup, WA. During her studies in Seattle, she was conductor of the University of Washington Campus Philharmonia Orchestras and Assistant Conductor of the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra as Graduate Assistant.

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Eads completed a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Washington under the tutelage of David A. Rahbee and Ludovic Morlot. Before her studies in Seattle, Abbie received a Bachelor of Arts in Music at Minot State University where she studied cello with Erik Anderson. As a cellist, Eads was a soloist with the Minot Symphony Orchestra as the winner of their 2014 MSO Concerto Competition and has also been accepted to perform and study at numerous music festivals across the country, including the Catskill High Peaks Festival in New York led by Yehuda Hanani and the Pierre Monteux Festival Orchestra in Hancock, Maine.