Dana Sadava

Dana Sadava enjoys a varied career as a conductor of opera and symphonic music. She was recently promoted to full-time Faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she serves as Associate Conductor of Opera. Recent guest conducting includes the San Diego Symphony, Opera San Jose, Symphony of the Redwoods, Opera Steamboat, Island City Opera, Festival Opera, and Wexford Festival Opera (Ireland).

Ms. Sadava has a particular affinity for contemporary music and has conducted new music at West Edge Opera, the University of California San Diego, Banff Opera as Theatre, and Pasadena Opera. Passionate about music education, she taught courses in opera, symphonic music, and J.S. Bach at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute for several years and is a guest artist at San Francisco Opera education events. Originally trained as a pianist, she studied piano performance at the Oberlin Conservatory and Aspen Music Festival. She studied conducting with Kenneth Kiesler at the University of Michigan, where earned a Masters of Music degree on a full merit scholarship.

Before delving into musical life, Ms. Sadava earned an undergraduate degree in engineering and literature from Caltech. While continuing to perform as a pianist, she was an Undergraduate Research Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was awarded a fellowship to Cambridge University to complete her literature coursework. She is interested in the intersection of science and music and frequently collaborates with neuroscientist Indre Viskontas on opera productions that feature themes of science and technology.