Laura Jackson is the Assistant Conductor and American Conducting Fellow of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She conducts the Young People's Concerts, the Symphony 360º Series, Summer Classical Concerts, and also performs with the ASO around the state of Georgia. In addition she serves as cover conductor for subscription concerts. Last season she debuted on the ASO Classical Series with an all-Mozart concert celebrating the composer's 250th birthday. This season she will return the Classical Series with music by Prokofiev and Brahms.

Ms. Jackson is active as a guest conductor and this season she will conduct the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony, and the San Antonio Symphony. Last season included concerts with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and in the spring of 2005, Ms. Jackson conducted performances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra as the winner of the Taki Concordia Fellowship.

After a successful summer of performances at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2002, Ms. Jackson was invited to return as the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellow in 2003. She conducted numerous concerts including both traditional and contemporary repertoire. During the Festival of Contemporary Music, she collaborated with composers Augusta Read Thomas, Kaija Saariaho, and Julia Wolfe and assisted conductor Stefan Asbury in the premiere production of Robert Zuidam's opera Rage d'amours.

Ms. Jackson came to the ASO in 2004 as a member of the American Conducting Fellows Program, a national conductor-training program developed and managed by the American Symphony Orchestra League to support the musical and leadership development of exceptionally talented conductors in the early stages of their professional careers. Aiming to improve the qualifications of American conductors to assume leadership roles as music directors of American orchestras, the program is funded by major grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.