Shah Sadikov

In late 2025, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was excited to welcome Shah as Assistant Conductor & Community Ambassador. In this role, Sadikov will assist Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni, lead ESO programs throughout the season, and serve as a key ambassador for the orchestra’s community outreach. He will also play a vital role with the Youth Orchestra of Northern Alberta (YONA), supporting the program’s artistic growth and helping inspire the next generation of young musicians.

Shah currently makes his home in Saskatoon. In the past decade, Sadikov has appeared as conductor and soloist with the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Turkistan Chamber Orchestra, and the National Radio Chamber Orchestra in his native Uzbekistan. He has also conducted ensembles including the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), Cincinnati Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Hamburg Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Sinfonietta, Kazakh State Philharmonic, and Saskatoon Symphony, among others.

Shah’s wide-ranging musical interests extend far beyond the symphonic realm. Alongside symphonic, operatic, and ballet repertoire, he brings the same commitment and joy to pops, jazz, and genre-blending projects. Recent engagements include Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (State Bolshoi Theater of Uzbekistan), Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (Peabody Opera), Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Landlocked Opera/NAVO), Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto (FHSU), Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (American Youth Ballet), Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (Owen/Cox Dance), One Vision – The Music of Queen with Jeans ’n Classics (Saskatoon Symphony), and Paris on the Prairies at the SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival (Saskatoon Symphony / Saskatoon Jazz Orchestra). He has also composed and recorded for rapper Tech N9ne’s albums Something Else and Special Effects, in addition to contributing to several film soundtracks. Equally devoted to contemporary music, Shah premiered more than a dozen new works in the 2024–25 season alone, including the short opera This. Is. You. Are. by Puerto Rican composer Julio Elvin Quiñones (Telltale Opera Theatre) and Ethan Soledad’s Cages of Jade at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

As a BIPOC artist, Sadikov has championed underrepresented communities through his work with NAVO Arts Inc.—a nonprofit he co-founded with his partner, Canadian violinist Véronique Mathieu—by presenting works by minority artists and commissioning new pieces by composers such as Anne Guzzo, Alice Ping Yee Ho, Althea Talbot-Howard, and Alex Shapiro. In the 2024–25 season, he conducted Chickasaw composer Jerod Tate’s Standing Bear: A Ponca Indian Cantata with baritone Grant Youngblood, and will bring the work to Saskatchewan in 2026, while also revisiting works by composers Dinuk Wijeratne and Ingrid Stölzel.

During his tenure as Music Director of the Hays Symphony Orchestra (2015–2019), the orchestra reached its first pedestal of success in every direction: innovative programming that appealed to a wide range of audiences (including two seasonal festivals—Cottonwood Chamber Music in the spring and New Music in the fall), consistently high-quality performances with a

strong following, the launch of the ensemble’s first brand and website, and the founding of the Hays Youth Orchestra. The Children’s Halloween Concert became one of the city’s most successful family events. Mr. Sadikov also served as Assistant Professor of Upper Strings and Orchestra Director at Fort Hays State University.

Shah completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting at Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute, studying with eminent Marin Alsop and Joseph Young, and earned a Master of Musicology with Dr. Laura Vasilyeva. His broader artistic development has been shaped by mentorship and masterclasses with figures including Bernard Labadie, Robert Spano, Michael Stern, Ludovic Morlot, Patrick Summers, Larry Rachleff, Donald Schleicher, Kim Kashkashian, Paul Neubauer, and Paul Coletti.

During his residency at Peabody, Shah underwent rigorous choral conducting training under Dr. Beth Willer, Grammy-nominated Artistic Director of the Lorelei Ensemble, immersing himself in repertoire from the Medieval era through the 21st century, with a memorable highlight in Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with the Baltimore Baroque Band.

As a researcher, Shah’s interests span two distinct and contemporary areas: the role of AI in the performing arts, and the history of Western music in Central Asia—contributing to the broader discourse on the decolonization of Soviet music.