Valérie Sainte-Agathe, a native of Martinique, is the newly-appointed Chorale Director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale.
She has served as the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus since 2013, and developed projects with Chanticleer, The King’s Singers, Roomful of Teeth, Tenet and Voices of Music. She toured with Kronos Quartet to conduct the world premiere of At War With Ourselves by Michael Abels throughout the U.S. and was recently invited as a guest conductor with the San Francisco Symphony for a program featuring works of Brahms conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann. Later this fall, she will be the Guest Conductor for new music ensemble Volti, creating pieces by Caroline Shaw and Pamela Z.
In 2018, Ms. Sainte-Agathe made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Philip Glass Ensemble, conducting with Michael Riesman in Glass’s Music with Changing Parts. She also conducted the Philip Glass Ensemble in another performance of this work making her debut at London’s prestigious Barbican Center in 2019. Between 2014 and 2016, she prepared choruses for Lisa Bielawa’s made-for-TV opera, Vireo and for Taylor Mac’s “Holiday Sauce” production.
She released two recordings: Final Answer, on Orange Mountain Music, and My Outstretched Hand, featuring composer Aaron Jay Kernis and The Knights conducted by Eric Jacobsen.