Chad Goodman

The 2023/24 season marked Chad Goodman’s inaugural year as music director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra—only the fifth leader in the orchestra’s prestigious seven-decade history.

Chad also serves as artistic director of IlluminArts, Miami’s art song and chamber music concert series.  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, where he was the assistant conductor to Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition to leading the orchestra in more than fifty performances, Chad created the educational program “SPARK: How Composers Find Inspiration,” which blended engaging audience participation with captivating light design and videography.

He 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.

As you will hear, Chad also leads workshops that teach young musicians the business skills needed to navigate successfully the music world. Forbes praised his 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?