Na’Zir McFadden, recipient of the 2026 Sphinx Medal of Excellence is emerging as one of the most compelling young conductors of his generation. The Philadelphia Inquirer has praised his “great conducting technique and energetic podium presence,” while Boston Classical Review highlighted the “rhythmic vitality and naturally expressive nuances” of his interpretations.
McFadden serves as Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony and Conducting Fellow of the San Diego Symphony. These appointments follow three seasons as Assistant Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra, where he worked closely with Music Director Jader Bignamini and collaborated with artists including Hilary Hahn, Gil Shaham, Awadagin Pratt, Jessie Montgomery, Billy Childs, Jordan Bak, and Steven Banks. Alongside his work on the podium, he developed educational initiatives and community partnerships throughout the Detroit area.
His growing career has brought him to the podium of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Nashville Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He also maintains an ongoing artistic relationship with Philadelphia Ballet.
Highlights of the 2026/27 season include a two-week residency with the Louisville Orchestra conducting symphonies by Stravinsky, Bizet, and Mendelssohn, alongside return engagements with Philadelphia Ballet and multiple programs with the Jacksonville Symphony.
In 2024, McFadden was a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, studying with Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, Thomas Wilkins, and Alan Gilbert. During the fellowship, he made a widely noted last-minute step-in to conduct Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Ozawa Hall. He returned the following summer to conduct the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra in music by Florence Price and Shostakovich, and later shared the podium with Elim Chan and Keith Lockhart during the annual Tanglewood on Parade concert, leading Aaron Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait with historian Heather Cox Richardson.
Born in Philadelphia, McFadden began his musical studies as a clarinetist before discovering conducting while still in school. He studied with Paul Bryan of the Curtis Institute of Music and later with Cliff Colnot at DePaul University. In 2020, he became the Robert L. Poster Conducting Apprentice of the New York Youth Symphony and was appointed the inaugural Apprentice Conductor of Philadelphia Ballet.
