Liam Cunningham

Liam Cunningham is a freelance bassoonist and orchestral conductor based in Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently the String Ensembles Director with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program. Entering his fifth season, Liam has worked to grow and strengthen the artistic goals of the OrchKids ensembles, where he has championed the music of Florence Price, William Grant Still, Joseph Bologne, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and many living local composers. A strong advocate for diversifying the classical music scene, he has had more than eight arrangements premiered since 2023. These arrangements, all of music by Black composers, attempt to balance access to composers who have been historically excluded and marginalized.

Liam was also recently named conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra (BSYO) program, where he will lead about 130 students in regular orchestral performances.

A strong force for musical excellence and education, Liam is sought after as a coach and clinician, working with many schools and orchestras in the Washington, D.C.–Maryland–Virginia region. He has also served as a chamber music coach with the BSYO program for the past two seasons and founded the OrchKids Honors String Ensemble in spring 2026.

Before his work in Baltimore, Liam founded and led a contemporary ensemble in Boston, bringing new works to diverse communities in the city. He regularly performed with the MIT Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and many other regional orchestras on the East Coast. His teachers include Marin Alsop, Margaret Phillips, and Bruce Hangen, and he has pursued studies at Ithaca College, The Boston Conservatory, and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.