Chad Goodman has garnered significant acclaim for his electrifying conducting style, characterized by "precision, agility, and fervor," as well as a "pitch-perfect combination of abandon and subtlety" (South Florida Classical Review).
Early Career and Education
Goodman holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Music degree from San Francisco State University. His educational background laid the foundation for his future accomplishments in the classical music world.
Conducting Fellowships and Assistant Roles
From 2019 to 2023, Goodman served as the Conducting Fellow of the New World Symphony, where he was the assistant conductor to Michael Tilson Thomas. During this time, he led the orchestra in over fifty performances and created the educational program “SPARK: How Composers Find Inspiration,” which combined audience participation with light design and videography.
Prior to this, from 2018 to 2023, Goodman was an Assistant Conductor to the San Francisco Symphony, collaborating with renowned conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Daniel Harding, Pablo Heras-Casado, Simone Young, and James Gaffigan.
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Artistic Directorships
Goodman also serves as Artistic Director of IlluminArts, Miami’s art song and chamber music concert series. In this role, he curates site-specific classical music programs in collaboration with the leading museums, art galleries, and historic venues of Miami.
IlluminArts Miami programs combine music with visual arts.
As Founder and Artistic Director of Elevate Ensemble, Goodman’s ambitious vision for concert programming resulted in the pairing of music from Bay Area composers with underappreciated gems of the 20th and 21st centuries. Under his leadership, Elevate Ensemble established a Composer-in-Residence program and commissioned fifteen new works. Goodman also leads workshops that teach young musicians the business skills needed to successfully navigate the music world.
Elgin Symphony Orchestra (ESO)
The 2023/24 season marked Goodman’s inaugural season as Music Director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra (ESO)-only the fifth leader in the orchestra’s prestigious seven-decade history. The Elgin Symphony Orchestra has announced the concerts for the mainstage, orchestral classical music series of its 2023-2024 season. Each mainstage concert of the orchestra’s current 2022-2023 season has featured one of the finalists for the position: Andres Lopera, John Devlin, Andrew Crust, Kyle Ritenauer, Lee Mills, Alex Amsel, and Chad Goodman.
Upcoming concerts include Strauss’ Four Last Songs with soprano Christine Brewer, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Orli Shaham and Beethoven’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 9. The 2023-2024 season opens on October 7 with eminent soprano Christine Brewer singing Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. As the title would imply (the name was coined posthumously by a colleague), the collection of songs was the last works completed by Strauss. Brewer is just the first in a string of respected soloists visiting the ensemble.
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In November, Brant Taylor, cellist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Stephen Rose, violinist with the Cleveland Orchestra, will appear with the ESO performing the Brahms Double Concerto. In January, flutist Brandon Patrick George, a member of Imani Winds will appear as soloist. In March, ESO concertmaster Isabella Lippi - who debuted with the CSO at age 10 - will share a performance Mozart’s 4th Violin Concerto. The season culminates in May with a performance of Beethoven’s perennial Ninth Symphony.
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra is a regional orchestra founded and headquartered in Elgin, Illinois. The Elgin Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1950 by Douglas Steensland at Elgin Community College. In 1971, with the appointment of Grammy Award-winning conductor Margaret Hillis as Music Director, the Orchestra’s artistic growth advanced significantly. Conductor/composer Robert Hanson was appointed the Orchestra's Associate Conductor in 1974 and Co-Music Director with Hillis in 1983. Hanson became Music Director in 1985, and the Orchestra achieved an artistic and service growth described by the Chicago Tribune as “impressive.”
In 1985 the Orchestra became a fully professional ensemble. In 1988, 1999, 2005 and 2016, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra was named Orchestra of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras. In 2011 Hanson stepped down as Music Director. Following a two-year search, the Orchestra on June 12, 2013, announced the appointment of Andrew Grams as its next Music Director. Grams, who was named Conductor of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras in 2015, served the Elgin Symphony Orchestra until 2021. Isabella Lippi has been the Orchestra's concertmaster since 2004.
In 1996, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra moved its administrative and box offices from Elgin Community College, the Orchestra’s home for nearly 50 years, to downtown Elgin. In 1997, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra began broadcasting its Classic Series concerts on WFMT 98.7-FM, Chicago’s Fine Arts Station; performances are available on WFMT’s cable network in 38 states, and throughout the world on the Internet.
Recent Debuts and Recognition
Goodman has recently made debuts with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Puebla (OSEP).
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Forbes praised the conductor’s bold strides both on and off stage and hailed him as “An entrepreneur bringing innovation to classical music.” In 2022, he published the book "You Earned a Music Degree. Now What?”
Table of Key Roles and Achievements
| Role | Organization | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Music Director | Elgin Symphony Orchestra | 2023/24 - Present |
| Artistic Director | IlluminArts | Present |
| Founder and Artistic Director | Elevate Ensemble | - |
| Conducting Fellow | New World Symphony | 2019 - 2023 |
| Assistant Conductor | San Francisco Symphony | 2018 - 2023 |
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