The 2009-2010 season marks Akiko Fujimoto's second season as the Music Director of the Williamsburg Youth Orchestras and a third in the combined position of the Conducting Associate for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Director of Orchestras at the College of William & Mary. As a member of the VSO conducting staff, she leads various types of concerts including educational and holiday programs. Hailed as "a very talented conductor who knows her score and her musicians" (The Virginia Gazette), she has won critical acclaim for her leadership of the William & Mary Symphony Orchestra. Prior to arriving in Virginia, Ms. Fujimoto served as the Music Director of the Mozart Society Orchestra at Harvard University, where she led the MSO to many milestones including collaboration with pianist and Mozart scholar Robert Levin and a master class with conductor Larry Rachleff. In 2006, Ms. Fujimoto performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, as one of the five participants in the NAC Conductors Programme that studied with Kenneth Kiesler and Pinchas Zukerman. In the summer of 2007, she conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the St. Magnus Festival under the tutelage of Sian Edwards, and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra at the Eastman Summer Conducting Institute. A native of Japan, Ms. Fujimoto immigrated to California at age 14 and earned her Masters of Music in choral and orchestral conducting from the Eastman School of Music and Boston University, respectively, and a Bachelor's degree in music and psychology from Stanford University.