NADÈGE FOOFAT
Nadège Foofat is a conductor and artistic leader with an active guest conducting career across Canada and the United States. In 2025, she earned a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album as conductor of Bespoke Songs on the Sono Luminus label.
She previously served as Assistant Conductor at the Hamburg State Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra to Kent Nagano. Her responsibilities included preparing soloists and chorus, leading rehearsals and offstage ensembles, and conducting performances associated with productions of Wozzeck, Lulu, Fidelio, and Parsifal at the Elbphilharmonie. From 2009-2014 she was Founder and Music Director of the Esopus Chamber Orchestra, a professional ensemble in New York’s Hudson Valley, where she led all artistic and administrative operations. Additional professional appointments include Associate Conductor on the Grammy-nominated recording of Milhaud’s L’Orestie d’Eschyle for Naxos and Assistant/Cover Conductor with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. Upcoming 2026-2027 guest conducting engagements include return engagements with the Kamloops Symphony and the Vancouver Island Symphony. Her conducting training includes a Doctor of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Université de Montréal and a Diplôme de Perfectionnement in contemporary orchestral conducting from the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana.
Nadège is the Artistic Director of Classical at the MSV, a chamber music series based in Winchester, Virginia. She curates and directs a multi-concert season featuring world-class musicians, and performs regularly within the series as a violist. In parallel with her conducting career, she maintains an active performance life as a chamber musician, with upcoming 2026 appearances in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Her performance training includes a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Music in viola performance from The Juilliard School.
Nadège currently serves as Director of the Orchestral Program at Harmony Middle School in Loudoun County, Virginia. At the collegiate level, she served as Orchestra Director, Violin and Viola Instructor and Strings Coordinator at Keene State College and as Guest Conductor at Shenandoah Conservatory. She has also taught at the elementary and middle school levels with the Sphinx Organization, and at P.S. 142 in New York City.