- Favorite composers: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, Shostakovitch, Stravinsky.
- 2019 - 2020: The MCO is named Classical Artist/Ensemble of the Year at the Western Canadian Music awards.
- 2019: Tour of the Dvorák's ‘American’ string quartet (arranged for chamber orchestra) with the MCO.
- 2018: Tour of the Philip Glass' third piano concerto with Simone Dinnerstein.
- 2013: CD recording of Philip Glass' third piano concerto with Michael Riesman.
- 2009: Tour with Dame Evelyn Glennie, resulting in a CD recording.
- 2008: Tour with Isabel Bayrakdarian, including a concert at the Carnegie Hall in New York, and resulting in a CD recording (2013).
- 2008 to present: Music Director of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (MCO) in Winnipeg, where she explored the Haydn Symphonies perfectly suited for chamber orchestra. The MCO presents at least nine concerts annually, most of which feature guest soloists, and all of which present an accessible, eclectic repertoire ranging from the mega-hits of the common practice tradition to exciting new premieres. The rest of its programming energies are devoted to an extensive program of touring, recording, and outreach.
- 1999 to 2003: Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony, where conducted Brahms, Shostakovitch, Stravinsky, and where she accompanied Frederica von Stade singing Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfairer), Denyce Graves singing Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), and Chick Corea playing Mozart's Piano concerto no. 20 in D minor.
- 1997: Conductor at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London performing Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins.
- 1994: The first woman to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, leading them in the opera Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky to critical acclaim. Her landmark appearance in Salzburg was made possible by the renowned conductor Claudio Abbado. Ms. Manson went to Vienna to observe Mr. Abbado in rehearsal at the State Opera. Just then the maestros assistant quit. Mr. Abbado invited Ms. Manson to be his new assistant, which involved helping him prepare performances at the opera house, including a production of Boris Godunov. When the Vienna Philharmonic performed this Mussorgsky opera at Salzburg, Mr. Abbado could not conduct one of the performances. At his suggestion, Ms. Manson was hired.
- 1988 to 1996: Conductor of the London Mecklenburgh Opera, exploring the composers of the Eastern Bloc. She inaugurated the Mecklenburgh Opera with a production of a neglected work, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, by the German-Czech composer Viktor Ullmann, who was killed at Auschwitz in 1944. To raise funds for the production, she turned to prominent cultural figures in London who had roots in Eastern Europe: the conductor Georg Solti and the playwright Tom Stoppard. The success of this production earned the Mecklenburgh Opera regular support from the government arts council.
