Damon Gupton

Damon Gupton is the principal guest conductor of the Cincinnati Pops. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he served as an American conducting fellow with the Houston Symphony and held the post of assistant conductor of the Kansas City Symphony. He's made appearances conducting many ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Chineke! Orchestra, NHK Orchestra of Tokyo, Orquesta Filarmónica de UNAM, Charlottesville Symphony, Brass Band of Battle Creek, Brevard Music Center, and Sphinx Symphony Orchestra as part of the 12th annual Sphinx Competition. He led the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra on two national tours, including performances at Carnegie Hall, and conducted the finals of the Seventh Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition as well as the 2021 Classic FM Live at Royal Albert Hall with the Chineke! Orchestra.

Other musical collaborations include work with Sting, Marcus Miller, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Common, Leslie Odom Jr., Byron Stripling, Tony DeSare, the Midtown Men, Kenn Hicks, Jamie Cullum, and Massamba Diop in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther in Concert.

Gupton has also been featured as a narrator in numerous venues, including Juilliard Jazz, where he performed Wynton Marsalis’ "The Ever Fonky Lowdown," as well as with the Colorado Symphony, Grant Park Music Festival, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops, Grand Teton Music Festival, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and on the Videmus recording "Fare Ye Well."

Gupton received his Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Michigan, where he delivered the commencement address to the School of Music, Theater, and Dance in 2015. He studied conducting with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Music Festival and with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C. His awards include the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize and the Aspen Conducting Prize. Gupton is the inaugural recipient of the Emerging Artist Award from the University of Michigan School of Music Alumni Society and a winner of the Third International Eduardo Mata Conducting Competition.

An accomplished actor, Gupton is a graduate of the drama division of the Juilliard School. He has had roles in television, film, and on stage, including series regular roles in "The Big Door Prize," "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey" (starring Samuel L. Jackson), "Black Lightning," "Criminal Minds," "The Player," "The Divide," "Prime Suspect," "Dick Wolf’s Deadline," "Strange Brew," and "Finkleman." His guest-starring and recurring appearances include "Your Honor," "Goliath," "Bates Motel," "The Newsroom," "Super Pumped," "The Comey Rule," "Dirty John," "Suits," "Empire," "Law & Order," the upcoming Paramount+ series "Happy Face," "Rake, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Conviction," "The Unusuals," "Hack," "Third Watch," and "Drift."

He appears in the films Lear Rex with Al Pacino and The Drama, directed by Kristoffer Borgli, as well as in Damien Chazelle’s Academy Award-winning films Whiplash and La La Land, This Is 40, The Last Airbender, Helen at Risk, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Unfaithful, The Loretta Claiborne Story, and Nicki Micheaux’s Summer of Violence.

His stage roles include the Broadway production of Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning Clybourne Park and the Ovation- and LA Drama Critics Circle Award-winning Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by Phylicia Rashad (Mark Taper Forum). Other theater credits include Superior Donuts (The Geffen), Christina Anderson’s Inked Baby (Playwrights Horizons), Othello (Heart of America Shakespeare Festival), The Story (Public Theater), Meg’s New Friend (The Production Company), Wendy Wasserstein’s An American Daughter (Arena Stage), True History and Real Adventures (The Vineyard Theatre), and Treason (Perry Street Theatre), as well as the title role in Academy Award-winner Eric Simonson’s Carter’s Way at Kansas City Repertory Theater. He received an AUDELCO nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Clybourne Park.

He is represented by Harden Curtis Kirsten Riley Agency (HCKR), SMS Talent, and Brookside Artist Management.