Chad Goodman

Chad Goodman has received widespread praise for thrilling conducting that combines “precision, agility and fervor” and for displaying the “pitch perfect combination of abandon and subtlety” (South Florida Classical Review).

The 2023/24 season marked Goodman’s inaugural year as Music Director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra—only the fifth leader in the orchestra’s prestigious seven-decade history. Highlights included Strauss’ Four Last Songs with soprano Christine Brewer, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Orli Shaham, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Goodman made his Minnesota Orchestra subscription debut in June 2024, stepping in on short notice to lead the orchestra’s season finale program featuring works by Smyth, Poulenc, and Tchaikovsky.

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. 

From 2019 to 2023, he was the Conducting Fellow of the New World Symphony, additionally serving as the Assistant Conductor to Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition to leading the orchestra in more than fifty performances, Goodman created the educational program “SPARK: How Composers Find Inspiration,” which blended engaging audience participation with captivating light design and videography.

Goodman has served as an Assistant Conductor to the San Francisco Symphony, working alongside Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Daniel Harding, Elim Chan, Simone Young, and James Gaffigan, among others. He 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).

As Founder and Artistic Director of Elevate Ensemble, Goodman’s ambitious vision for concert programming resulted in the pairing of music from San Francisco 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. Forbes praised the conductor’s bold strides both on and off stage and hailed him as “An entrepreneur bringing innovation to classical music.” Last year, he published the book You Earned a Music Degree. Now What?

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 mentors include Michael Tilson Thomas and Alasdair Neale.