Appointed General and Artistic Director of Connecticut Opera (Hartford) in July 1999, Maestro Willie Anthony Waters has conducted numerous noteworthy productions and events for the company, including the Arena production of Aïda in 1991, Otello in 1997, Porgy and Bess in 1998, A Capitol Concert in Bushnell Park during the summer of 2000, and Denyce Graves in Concert (which opened the company's 60th anniversary season) in the fall of 2001. The 2004-05 season marked the 25th anniversary of Willie Anthony Waters' conducting debut at Connecticut Opera.

Maestro Waters has been a guest conductor for the Arizona Opera, Australian Opera, Cologne Opera (Germany), Edmonton Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Houston Ebony Opera, Manitoba Opera (Winnipeg), Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Carolina, Opera Colorado, L'Opéra de Montréal, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Orlando Opera, San Francisco Opera, Vancouver Opera, Kentucky Opera, and the opera companies of Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban, in South Africa. Among his orchestral engagements are performances with the Florida Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Bavarian Radio Orchestra (Munich), Essen Philharmonic (Germany), Brucknerhaus Orchester (Linz, Austria) and Indianapolis Symphony. Maestro Waters also serves as Artistic Advisor and Conductor of the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, where he has conducted Otello, Tosca, Suor Angelica and Highway One, USA (William Grant Still), The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, and La Bohème, set during the Harlem renaissance of the 1920s.

In September 2001, Maestro Waters conducted a gala concert with Denyce Graves in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Opera Colorado in Denver. In November of 2002 Maestro Waters made his New York City Opera debut conducting Rigoletto. After rave reviews in the New York Times, he returned to New York City Opera in the fall of 2003 to conduct Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men. In September of 2006 he conducted Aïda for Boston Lyric Opera's Opera on the Common.

Maestro Waters hosts a monthly radio program on Beethoven Radio, Through the Opera Glasses, and is a regular guest on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz during the renowned Metropolitan Opera live broadcasts.

Edward Cumming celebrates his seventh season as the ninth Music Director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in 2008-2009. His appointment was announced in 2001, culminating a two-year search process involving nearly 300 applicants from around the world.

Mr. Cumming was appointed Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1997. Working closely with Music Director Mariss Jansons, he accompanied the orchestra on domestic and foreign tours and conducted the orchestra in its highly regarded educational and outreach concerts throughout the state. As Music Director of the nationally-acclaimed Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, it was one of five orchestras invited to the biennial National Youth Orchestra Festival in 1998 and 2002.

As Resident Conductor of the Florida Orchestra from 1989 to 1993, he garnered audience and critical acclaim for his "Champagne" and "Coffee" concerts, two series of light classics for young adults and senior citizens. In 1991, Mr. Cumming conducted a recording of the "Star Spangled Banner" with Whitney Houston and the Florida Orchestra for Super Bowl XXV. In 1996 and 1997, he was Artistic Director of the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts.

First performances with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra include the world premieres of Valerie Coleman's The Painted Lady, Richard Cumming's Aspects of Hippolytus, Michael Gatonska's Wandering the Moon Nursery, and Stephen Michael Gryc’s Passagi (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra). In 2003 and 2007, the League of American Orchestras awarded Mr. Cumming and the HSO the ASCAP award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music.

As a guest conductor, Mr. Cumming has led many prominent orchestras across the United States, among them the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Oregon Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Maryland Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, and Memphis Symphony Orchestra. His credits abroad include La Orquesta Ciudad de Granada (Spain), the South Bohemian State Orchestra in the Czech Republic, the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he made his United Kingdom debut in 2000, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Cumming received Master of Musical Arts and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in orchestral conducting from Yale University, where he was a student of Otto-Werner Mueller. He studied with Michael Tilson Thomas at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and has performed in master classes directed by Riccardo Muti and Pierre Boulez. As an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, he was awarded the prestigious Eisner Prize for Creative Achievement in the Arts.