Appointed Music Director of the Orchestre national Avignon-Provence in 2020, a position renewed through 2026, Débora Waldman became the first woman to lead a permanent French national orchestra.

In September 2022, she was also appointed Associate Conductor of the Opéra de Dijon following a dazzling production of Don Pasquale in spring 2022. She subsequently conducted the Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne during the 30th Victoires de la Musique in March 2023.

Débora Waldman has already been invited to conduct the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Symphoniker Hamburg, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Duisburger Philharmoniker, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Lyon, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est, the Orchestre Symphonique Région Centre-Val de Loire/Tours, the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Limoges, the Orchestre Lamoureux, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia.

In the field of opera, she has conducted Aida, Stiffelio, Tosca, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, Don Giovanni, Idomeneo, Die Zauberflöte, Dialogues des Carmélites, La Sérénade by the French composer Sophie Gail, as well as the world premiere of Madame Bovary by Michael De Cock and Harold Noben. She has appeared in opera houses including La Monnaie de Bruxelles, the Opéra de Marseille, the Opéra d’Avignon, and the Opéra de Dijon.

A dynamic conductor, she is particularly committed to music education and outreach through the Démos project, with which she has been involved since its creation in 2010, both at the Philharmonie de Paris and with her orchestra in Avignon.

Deeply committed to the message of peace, having lived in three different countries before the age of fifteen (Brazil, Israel, and Argentina), Débora Waldman was chosen to conduct the concert Thessalonique, carrefour des civilisations in celebration of Arab-Israeli friendship.

She works within a tradition founded on the principle of “constant questioning” and created her own Paris-based orchestra, Idomeneo, which performs regularly at the Salle Gaveau.

In June 2019, she conducted the world premiere of Grande Guerre, a symphony written in 1917 by the French composer Charlotte Sohy (1887–1955), whose forgotten score she rediscovered. In July 2021, she conducted its Paris premiere with the Orchestre National de France at the Maison de la Radio. The first-ever recording of the symphony was made during that concert, in partnership with Palazzetto Bru Zane, and released in March 2023. This rediscovery also led to the publication of the book La symphonie oubliée, a dual portrait of the composer and the conductor, published by Robert Laffont. Her first recording with the Orchestre national Avignon-Provence, Charlotte Sohy, compositrice de la Belle Époque, was released on the label La Boîte à Pépites / Recording Women Composers and received numerous national and international distinctions, including Diapason Découverte, Diamant Opéra Magazine, five stars from Classica, and a nomination at the International Classical Music Awards.

She studied conducting at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique and quickly became assistant to Kurt Masur at the Orchestre National de France from 2006 to 2009.

In 2008, ADAMI named her “Talent Chef d’Orchestre”, and in 2011 she received an award from the Fondation Simone et Cino del Duca under the aegis of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Débora Waldman has been represented by RSBA since 2024.