CHIEF CONDUCTOR
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Karina Canellakis is the Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (Radio Filharmonisch Orkest) since 2019, and the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2021. Internationally acclaimed for her symphonic and operatic performances characterized by interpretive depth, refinement, and emotional impact, Karina is welcomed by the finest musical institutions across the globe.
As Chief Conductor of the RFO, Karina programs and leads an eclectic season of very wide-ranging repertoire, juxtaposing newly commissioned works alongside great masterworks, as well as concertante opera, in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw as well as TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht. Highlights of the 25/26 season include her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at Mozartwoche Salzburg in January, a seven-city European tour with the London Philharmonic and Anne-Sophie Mutter in February, and her debut with Staatsoper Hamburg in April/May in a production of Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” and Zemlinsky’s “A Florentine Tragedy” directed by the company’s new intendant, Tobias Kratzer.
She opens the season in August with her debut at the Lucerne Festival, a performance at Musikfest Berlin (with the RFO and Netherlands Radio Choir on tour celebrating Pierre Boulez’s centenary year) as well as the Edinburgh International Festival with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and EIF choir. She returns this season to the Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, and Vienna Symphony, and will also make her debut with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva.
Karina conducts at least one opera-in-concert each season with the RFO in the Concertgebouw, and in March 2026 will lead Britten’s Peter Grimes featuring Allan Clayton in the title role. Past concert operas include a multi-year Janácek cycle (“From the House of the Dead”, “The Cunning Little Vixen”, “Kát’a Kabanová”, “The Makropulos Affair”) as well as Wagner’s complete “Siegfried”, and acts of “Tristan und Isolde” and “Die Walküre”. She made her critically acclaimed Santa Fe Opera debut in the summer of 2024 with Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier”, and conducted the beloved Olivier Py production of Poulenc’s “Dialogues des Carmélites” at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées last season. In previous seasons, she has conducted a wide range of opera productions including Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”, Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, “Die Zauberflöte” and “Le nozze di Figaro”.
April 2023 saw the start of a multi-album collaboration between Karina, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Pentatone, with their debut release, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Four Orchestral Pieces, earning a GRAMMY nomination. Her second album for Pentatone, Bartok’s “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle”, was released in April 2025 to glowing international reviews. Karina was also a featured artist for the launch of Apple Music Classical with a recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Alice Sara Ott and the RFO.
Karina has developed close relationships with several of the world’s leading orchestras, regularly returning to European orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Vienna Symphony, and Munich Philharmonic, and appearing as a repeat guest with the top American orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco Symphonies, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras. She was Principal Guest Conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin from 2019-2023, and in 23-24 was a featured Artist-in-Residence at Vienna’s Musikverein. She has toured Australia and made her debut in Japan in July 2025 with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo.
Already known to many in the classical music world as a virtuoso violinist, Karina grew up in New York City where she learned conducting and score-reading from her father, Martin Canellakis. She was then encouraged to become a conductor by Sir Simon Rattle while playing in the Berlin Philharmonic as a member of the Karajan-Akademie. She spent several years performing as soloist, guest leader, and chamber musician, spending summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, until conducting eventually took over after she won the Sir Georg Solti Award in 2016.