Lauded by critics for her “strong sense of style and drama” and her “enthusiastic and perceptive conducting,” conductor Victoria Gau brings a wide range of musical experience and expertise to the CCS. She is Associate Conductor of the National Philharmonic, and former Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic.

Maestra Gau is well-known in the Washington, DC area for her work as Artistic Director and Music Director/ Conductor of the Other Opera Company in Bethesda, Maryland, which she co-founded in 1992. She has also served as music director for such Washington area companies as The Washington Savoyards, Victorian Lyric Opera Company, Annapolis Opera Musicales, the Eldbrook Opera Ensemble, and the IN-Series. She has guest conducted the Heights Civic Orchestra (Cleveland, OH), the Akron (OH) Symphony, the Friday Morning Music Club Orchestra, and has been a guest conductor for the Kennedy Center Messiah Sing-Along.

She is in demand around the region as a conductor and string educator at youth orchestra festivals and workshops, most recently conducting the South Central Virginia Senior Regional Orchestra Festival. Ms. Gau has been conductor of the Young Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra of the DC Youth Orchestra Program, the Akron Youth Symphony in Akron, OH, and Assistant Conductor of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra. She is Director of the National Philharmonic's Summer Choral and String Institutes.

Ms. Gau is an active vocal coach and accompanist, serving on the opera faculty at George Mason University, and has worked with vocalists both privately and in the Crittenden Opera Studio. She has toured with Odyssey Opera Theatre and the Baltimore Opera Company, performing educational outreach in schools throughout the state of Maryland. She is a free-lance violist, pianist, and teacher. Ms. Gau holds degrees in Viola Performance and Conducting from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she won the Phi Kappa Lambda Prize for Musicianship.