Renee Gilliland

Renee Gilliland is associate director of orchestras, conductor of the CU Philharmonia Orchestra and instructor of music education at the University of Colorado Boulder College of Music. Her research topics and lectures focus on diverse repertoire, sensory-friendly concerts and models, as well as selected works by Emilie Mayer. Recent guest lecture appearances include at the CU Boulder Summer MME conducting course, the Nat King Cole Generation Hope Music Educators Conference and the Colorado ASTA Conference. Concurrently, she is assistant conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic.

Gilliland has conducted performances with the Boulder Philharmonic, Boulder Concert Band, Playground Ensemble, Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra and Bang on a Can All-Stars among others. She has been a conducting participant in workshops and festivals in the United States as well as abroad in Austria, Bulgaria, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. In 2021, Gilliland was featured in the inaugural Girls Who Conduct Conducting Symposium: Diverse Pathways to the Podium as part of the Ensemble Showcase. Most recently, Gilliland and the CU Philharmonia Orchestra were selected as national finalists in the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music as part of The American Prize. This honor was based on their selected performances of Carlos Simon’s “Fate Now Conquers” and Adolphus Hailstork’s “Sonata da Chiesa.” Passionate about discovering and promoting diverse repertoire, Gilliland contributes as the Youth Orchestra Assistant Editor for the African Diaspora Music Project.

Gilliland earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in orchestral conducting and literature from CU Boulder, a Master of Music in viola performance with an outside area in conducting from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music in music education and certificate of violin performance from the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music. She was also awarded an Artist Diploma in orchestral conducting from the University of Denver where she was assistant conductor of the Lamont School of Music Symphony and Opera Theater orchestras.

Gilliland formerly served as the music director of the CU Anschutz Medical Orchestra, associate conductor of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, string instructor at Blinn College and as director of orchestras at Morton Ranch High School in Katy, Texas. Her orchestras received superior ratings and sweepstakes awards in competitions in and outside of the state of Texas. She enjoys guest conducting for all-region and honor orchestras as well as judging at region, area and state levels.