At the heart of her work is the music of Mozart. In 2013 she founded the Orchestre Idomeneo in Paris – an ensemble of experienced instrumentalists named after Mozart’s opera, committed to historically informed performance practice and appearing regularly at the Salle Gaveau. Since December 2025 the orchestra has been performing a complete cycle of Mozart’s symphonies under her direction at the Collège des Bernardins. At the Opéra Grand Avignon she conducted Don Giovanni (2021 and 2025, opening the house’s 200th anniversary celebrations) and Die Zauberflöte (2024).

Her opera repertoire ranges from Mozart via bel canto, Verdi and verismo to the present day. At the Opéra de Dijon she has conducted Don Pasquale, Stiffelio, Tosca, La traviata as well as Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci; further titles include Aida, Rigoletto, Falstaff, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Hänsel und Gretel and La Sérénade by the French composer Sophie Gail. In 2025 she conducted the world premiere of Harold Noben’s opera Bovary at Brussels’ Théâtre de la Monnaie, and in 2026 Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the Opéra de Marseille. In October 2026 she returns to the Opéra Grand Avignon with Aida.

Major guest appearances include concerts with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Duisburg Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Staatskapelle Halle, Orchestre Symphonique Val de Loire/Tours, Orchestre National de Lyon at the Festival Berlioz in La Côte-Saint-André and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Further engagements have taken her to the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Colombia, the Orchestre Lamoureux at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Geneva Chamber Orchestra, the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre de Limoges.

In 2019 she conducted the world premiere of the “Grande Guerre” Symphony written in 1917 by French composer Charlotte Sohy (1887–1955), whose forgotten score she had rediscovered; in 2021 followed the Paris premiere with the Orchestre National de France at the Maison de la Radio, which resulted in a world premiere recording in partnership with the Palazzetto Bru Zane (2023). The discovery was the occasion for the book La symphonie oubliée (Robert Laffont), a cross-portrait of the composer and the conductor; a German edition, Die vergessene Symphonie, is published by Bibliothek der Provinz in November 2026. Her first recording with the Orchestre national Avignon-Provence, Charlotte Sohy, compositrice de la Belle Époque (La Boîte à Pépites), received awards including Diapason Découverte, Diamant Opéra Magazine and 5 étoiles Classica, and was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards.

Since the creation of the Philharmonie de Paris’ Démos project in 2010, Débora Waldman has been committed to music education and to working with young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Personally attached to the Israeli peace movement and to Israeli-Arab understanding, she was chosen to conduct the concert “Thessalonica, crossroads of civilizations” in honour of Arab-Israeli friendship.

Débora Waldman’s career took her to three different countries before she turned 15. Born in São Paulo, she moved with her family to a kibbutz in Israel, where she lived until the age of 14. She then moved to Argentina and studied in Buenos Aires at the Universidad Católica Argentina – the only student in the university’s history to be awarded two gold medals, in orchestral conducting and in composition. At the age of 17 she conducted an orchestra for the first time. In Paris she perfected her training at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSMDP) and was Kurt Masur’s assistant at the Orchestre National de France from 2006 to 2009. In 2008 ADAMI named her “Talent Chef d’Orchestre”, in 2011 she received the award of the Simone and Cino del Duca Foundation under the aegis of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and in 2021 she was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

Felsner Artists is the general management of Débora Waldman.