Foofat Joins Faculty During Wagner’s Spring 2020 Sabbatical

Shenandoah Conservatory welcomes conductor Nadège Foofat, D.M., for the spring 2020 semester when Conductor, Director of Orchestral Studies and Professor of Conducting Jan Wagner, Diploma and Korrepetitions Praxis, Academy of Music in Vienna (Austria), begins his faculty sabbatical. Dr. Foofat will rehearse with the Symphony Orchestra, preparing and conducting the spring performances and collaborating with the dance and vocal/choral divisions on “The Body, The Voice, The Instrument” performance in March. She will also teach a graduate conducting student.

Foofat is a conductor, violinist, violist and advocate for innovation in thought, action, music and culture. In April 2018, she made her conducting debut with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra in the 2018 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview. She was selected for her “experience, talent, leadership potential, and commitment to a career in service to American orchestras” by the League of American Orchestras. During the 2019/20 season, Foofat is making her debuts with the Lima Symphony Orchestra, South Bend Symphony Orchestra, Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus and Symphony New Brunswick.

Wagner’s sabbatical work will focus on writing and self-publishing a much-needed study on the concept of Bar Group Analysis. Bar Group Analysis is an invaluable tool for all musicians (and one Wagner especially uses while instructing his conducting students) that helps them understand how musical works (multi-movement symphonic works or other instrumental compositions) are structured in terms of musical phrases. This concept was first introduced by Arnold Schoenberg and elaborated upon by the esteemed conductor and pedagogue Hans Swarowsky in Vienna, Austria, starting in the 1950s at the Academy of Music in Vienna (Swarowsky was also Wagner’s teacher’s “teacher”). Wagner has developed, refined and further elaborated his own approach to Bar Group Analysis which he seeks to expand and present in book form.

During the next few months, Wagner will also pursue professional conducting opportunities. He will guest conduct the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra in two performances of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” for the Virginia Regional Ballet at the Ferguson Center in Newport News, Virginia, and will return to the Alabama Symphony Orchestra in April for another appearance as part of its Masterworks Series, conducting works by Wagner, Mozart and Brahms.

Visit www.nadegefoofat.com to learn more about Foofat.