“Shortly after beginning her first season as assistant conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra four years ago, Karina Canellakis got one of those big breaks,” writes Michael Cooper in Wednesday’s (5/9) New York Times. “The orchestra’s music director, Jaap van Zweden, was injured, and she was asked to lead Shostakovich’s formidable Eighth Symphony without even one rehearsal…. But she triumphed…. Since then her conducting career has exploded, and now she is again following in Mr. van Zweden’s footsteps: Ms. Canellakis, a 36-year-old native New Yorker, has been named the next chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra—a post that Mr. van Zweden held from 2006 to 2012…. Ms. Canellakis … studied violin at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and conducting at Juilliard…. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic is known for the core repertory, operas and a steady diet of world premieres; Ms. Canellakis has experience leading new works through her association with the International Contemporary Ensemble…. She takes up the Netherlands job in 2019. The orchestra said she was the first woman to be named chief conductor of a Dutch symphony orchestra.”
Posted May 10, 2018
In photo: Karina Canellakis conducting at Tanglewood in 2014. Photo by Hilary Scott
