Naomi Woo

Canadian conductor & pianist Naomi Woo is a widely sought-after symphonic and operatic conductor and educator and the 2022 winner of the Canada Council’s prestigious Virginia Parker Prize. After a successful three-year tenure as assistant conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, she will join the Orchestre Métropolitain Montréal as Artistic Partner from the 2023-24 season and the Philadelphia Orchestra as assistant conductor for the 24-25 season. 

Highlights of her auspicious 23-24 season include conducting engagements with the Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and National Arts Center Orchestra; two appearances with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, where she is a music director finalist; and an extensive tour of England leading English Touring Opera’s Cinderella. As an assistant/cover conductor Naomi works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, and Orchestre Métropolitain, and she conducts classical subscription concerts with the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières, Orchestre symphonique de la Côte-Nord, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Thunder Bay Symphony. 

Engagements in previous seasons include the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Ann Arbor Symphony, Orchestra NOW (New York), Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, and Regina Symphony, and her debut at LSO St. Luke’s in London with the ensemble Tangram Sound. On the opera stage, she has conducted the Canadian premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone in Vancouver and the world premiere of Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s The Night Falls in New York City. In the fall of 2022, she assisted the world premiere of Oliver Leith’s opera Last Days at Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Naomi is a member of Tapestry Opera’s Women in Musical Leadership program and was chosen by her mentor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as a member of the Orchestre Métropolitain’s inaugural orchestral conducting academy.  

Naomi holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She has also studied mathematics, philosophy, and music at Yale College, the Yale School of Music, and Université de Montréal.