Southwest Region

SWRO 2025

2025 Southwest Region Orchestra

Amy Gillingham Culligan, conductor

Dr. Amy Gillingham Culligan is a multi-faceted artist, educator, and leader committed to advancing and inspiring others through music. She serves as Associate Professor of Strings (Cello) and Director of Orchestras at Northern Kentucky University, where she holds the Corbett Endowed Principal of Strings distinction. She is also a collaborative conductor with the Los Angeles Youth Philharmonic and a score reader for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and she remains active in leadership roles within several arts organizations.

Her work spans performance, conducting, education, and arts advocacy. Dr. Culligan has performed and recorded with artists such as Marin Alsop, Rick Steves, Lecrae, Crossroads Music, eighth blackbird, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and has played on national tours with Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Josh Groban, and Michael W. Smith. Her discography includes over fifty internationally distributed recordings with labels including Sony Entertainment, Mark Records, and Universal Music Group.

A strong advocate for accessible music education, she co-founded the nationally recognized NKU String Project and, as Executive Director of the National String Project Consortium, helped develop over 40 String Projects programs across the U.S. She has received more than 30 grants totaling over $200,000 for outreach and creative projects, and her work has earned numerous honors including the American Prize Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award in Orchestral Programming.

Dr. Culligan is the author of the book Cultivating Perception and is currently researching music’s connection to peace and justice. She holds degrees from the North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Outside of her professional work, she is a licensed foster parent, an avid distance runner, and lives in Cincinnati with her husband, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Associate Principal Percussionist Michael Culligan, and their young daughter.

Mark your calendars for required festival dates!
November 8 / November 22 / November 23

Questions?

Jordan Millard
OMEA SW Region Chair
omeaswro@gmail.com