Winner of The American Prize in Orchestral Conducting, professional division 2013, The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music, professional division, 2016, and 19 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming from the League of American Orchestras, Nan Washburn is now in her 22nd season as the Music Director and Conductor of the Michigan Philharmonic. From 2009-2017 she also served as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for the Michigan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, an ensemble that she founded in 2003. She has also held the posts as Music Director of the West Hollywood Orchestra, Orchestra Sonoma, Camellia Symphony, American Jazz Theater, and Director of the San Francisco State University Symphony Orchestra as well as being a co-founder, and for 10 years the Artistic Director of the San Francisco-based Women's Philharmonic.

A professional flutist for a number of years, Washburn studied at the Music Academy of the West, U.C. Santa Barbara (B.M.) and the New England Conservatory (M.M.). Washburn began her studies in conducting in 1984 working with Denis de Coteau at CSU Hayward, and continued studies with Harold Farberman at the Conductors Institute, and at the Aspen Music Festival as a scholarship student of Paul Vermel.