Martha Stoddard
​artistic director & principal conductor
Martha Stoddard assumed the leadership of the Oakland Civic Orchestra in 1997 and will enter her 26th season as Artistic Director in the Fall of 2023. Praised for her clarity, generosity and vision, she has guided the orchestra through a major transformation and continues to strive for artistic excellence and growth. 

Ms. Stoddard's recent appointments include Music Director for the Community Women’s Orchestra and Music Director for the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra. Previous positions include Conductor of the Holy Names University Community Orchestra, Resident Conductor for Enriching Lives Through Music, Program Director for the John Adams Young Composers Program at the Crowden Music Center and Director of Instrumental Music at Lick-Wilmerding High School. She is also an Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra.

An award-winning composer and conductor, Ms. Stoddard is a strong advocate for living composers and has conducted premieres and commissions in multiple orchestras, recently featuring works by Alexis Alrich, Jessica Krash and Niko Umar Durr.  In 2019 she brought the orchestra into the final round of the Ernst Bacon Prize for the Performance of American Music and in 2020 she was a finalist in the American Prize Competition for Conductors, Community Orchestra Division.

Her popular orchestral work, A Little Trip to Outer Space, enjoyed its South Bay premiere by the San Jose Youth Symphony Concert Orchestra in June 2023.  Also in 2023, Ms. Stoddard was selected as a conducting fellow in professional workshops in Los Angeles and Washington state and was an invited speaker at the Maestri Series Conducting Workshop in San Francisco.  In 2024, she will present a Chamber Music Concert for the Glenview Concert Series, joined by OCO Bassoonist Adam Williams and Clarinetist Marcelo Meira. When not studying or playing music, you will probably find Marty on a tennis court.
Photo: Henry Dombey

Christine Brandes
AssOCIATE Conductor

Following a distinguished international singing career during which she was acclaimed for her radiant, crystalline voice and superb musicianship across a broad repertoire, Christine Brandes takes to the podium as conductor and garners praise for performances in the opera house and on the symphony stage.

Ms. Brandes was a 2021-2022 fellow of the Dallas Opera Hart Institute for Women Conductors and currently the Associate Conductor of the Oakland Civic Orchestra. She has led productions of Gluck’s Orfeo et Eurydice and Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto with West Edge Opera as well as Haydn’s Armida, Rameau’s La Sympathie and most recently Orfeo and Erica, based on Gluck’s Orfeo interwoven with a play for deaf actors with Victory Hall Opera in Charlottesville, Virginia. 
 
Ms. Brandes is one of the conductors in June 2023 for the launch of the International Pride Orchestra in San Francisco. She makes her conducting debut at the Seattle Opera in the fall of 2023 with Handel’s Alcina.

On the concert stage, Ms. Brandes made her debut with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra in the fall of 2022 and her debut performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Virginia Symphony in December of 2022. She has also served as the cover conductor for Nicholas McGegan with the Oakland Symphony.

As a singer, she has sung principal roles for the following opera companies: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington National, Houston Grand, Minnesota, New York City Opera, Philadelphia, Glimmerglass, Portland, among others.

She has also sung with the following orchestras:  Cleveland, Chicago, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, Seattle, Minnesota, National Symphony, with such distinguished conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Nicholas McGegan, among many others.

To read more about Ms. Brandes please visit:  christine-brandes