December 18, 2024
Karina Conducts the Televised New Year’s Eve Concert of Staatskapelle Dresden
Karina Canellakis will conduct the Staatskapelle Dresden in their annual New Year's Eve concert at the Semperoper on December 29 and 30, 2024. The program will feature pieces by Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner, and Cole Porter. Karina will be joined on stage by soloists Fatma Said (soprano), Jonah Hoskins (tenor), and pianist Kirill Gerstein.
The concert will be broadcast German wide on ZDF, starting at 10:15 PM on December 29, 2024
Photo: Semperoper Dresden/Klaus Gigga
December 11, 2024
Karina’s NY Phil debut included in New York Times’ “Best Classical Performances of 2024”
Karina's debut performance with the New York Philharmonic this past April has been named one of the New York Times' "Best Classical Performances of 2024." The review praised her for leading "delicate Webern and indelicate Scriabin alike with mastery." The article also highlights her concert at the Wiener Musikverein with the Vienna Symphony.
Photo: Erin Baiano
December 02, 2024
Karina Returns to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées for Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites
Karina makes her return to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where she conducted Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in 2021.
In December, she returns for Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites with performances on December 4, 8, 10, and 12, 2024, with the renowned Les Siècles Orchestra and the Chœur Unikanti.
October 21, 2024
Praised Debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orkest
"The acquaintance between Canellakis and the Concertgebouw Orchestra sounded like an adventure that deserves a sequel," wrote the Dutch newspaper NRC after Karina's long-awaited debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra last week. She led the orchestra in a captivating program featuring Sibelius’ Violin Concerto with soloist Augustin Hadelich, selections from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and Scriabin’s Le Poème de l’extase in four performances at the Concertgebouw.
Photo: Milagro Elstak
September 11, 2024
Season Highlights 2024-25
As Chief Conductor of the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Karina kicks of her season with concerts in Utrecht and Amsterdam this week. Symphonic highlights of the 2024-25 season with the RFO include Mahler’s Third Symphony, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. With the London Philharmonic, she has programmed a broad repertoire from Mozart to Saariaho, and continues to tour once a year with the orchestra.
Guest engagements this season include debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as well as Staatskapelle Dresden (in the famed, televised New Year’s Eve concert), along with return visits to the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Washington DC’s National Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris.
July 16, 2024
Karina to Conduct Her First “Der Rosenkavalier” at Santa Fe Opera
This summer Karina will lead five performances of Richard Strauss's beloved opera "Der Rosenkavalier" at the prestigious Santa Fe Opera. Scheduled for July 20 and 24, and August 2, 8, and 15, 2024, this marks Canellakis’ first time conducting the celebrated work, further cementing her reputation as a distinguished interpreter of Strauss’s music.
Joining Canellakis is a stellar cast, featuring Rachel Willis Sorensen as the Marschallin, Paula Murrihy as Octavian, Ying Fang as Sophie, and Matthew Rose as Baron Ochs. The production, directed by Bruno Ravella, promises to be a feast for both the eyes and ears, blending tradition with fresh, dynamic interpretations.
April 03, 2024
Karina to make her NY Phil debut
Karina Canellakis is scheduled to make her debut performance with the New York Philharmonic, leading a diverse program at Lincoln Center from April 4th to April 6th.
The program will open with Webern's introspective "Six Pieces for Orchestra". Pianist Alice Sara Ott will also make her first appearance with the NY Philharmonic, performing Ravel's "Piano Concerto in G major". Following Ravel's concerto, the concerts will continue with Richard Strauss' "Tod und Verklärung" before concluding with Scriabin's "Le Poème de l’extase."
February 20, 2024
Karina renews collaboration with London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra today announced the extension of their relationship with Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis. The contract - which commenced at the start of the 2021/22 season - has been extended for a further three years, and will see her continue to regularly conduct the orchestra in the UK and on tour.
Highlights of Karina’s many appearances with the orchestra include the UK premiere of Composer-in-Residence Tania León’s Horizons this past October, as well as a six-date tour to Germany last season. She has also been involved in the LPO’s Junior Artists scheme, which offers opportunities, advice and professional insight to talented young musicians from backgrounds that are currently under-represented in professional UK orchestras.
Of the appointment, Karina said, “I have had such a wonderful time conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra during the past three years and am thrilled to be working with them for a further three. It’s the response to the in-the-moment spontaneity that is so incredible with this orchestra and which makes it an electrifying experience both for me and the audience. I can’t wait to continue making music together!”
Karina joins the orchestra this Wednesday at the Royal Festival Hall for a programme that includes Brahms’ Symphony No.4 as well as Mussorgsky’s Overture to Khovanschina and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto with Pablo Ferrandez as soloist.
They follow this with a five-city European tour which culminates with a performance at the Musikverein Vienna on 27 February as part of Karina’s season-long residency there. The tour features the Mussorgsky presented alongside either Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto with Christian Tetzlaff and Brahms’s Symphony No.4, or Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.10 for two pianos with Arthur and Lucas Jussen with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.4.
November 10, 2023
Grammy Nomination for Bartók Recording with Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
Karina's recording of Bartók's "Four Orchestral Pieces" and "Concerto for Orchestra" has received a Grammy nomination in the category "Best Orchestral Performance".
"I am so thrilled to learn that my Bartók recording with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest has been nominated for a Grammy. A wonderful nod not only to this utterly expressive and stirring music but also to the musical journey the orchestra and I have made together over the years. Congratulations RFO!"
The recording was released in March earlier this year and has received rave reviews. The Grammy winners will be announced at the awards show in Los Angeles on 4 February.
October 23, 2023
Karina kick’s off Vienna Musikverein Residency
Vienna’s Musikverein is featuring Karina as an Artist-in-Residence in the 2023-24 season, during which Karina will appear several times across the season with four different orchestras.
Last weekend Karina kicked off her residency in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein with an epic program of Bartók's "Four Orchestral Pieces", Dvořák's "The Wood Dove" and Janáček's "Glagolitic Mass" with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Austrian newspaper Der Standard writes, "That this music released an intoxicating effect was thanks to Karina Canellakis: with her spacious and at the same time sweeping conducting technique, she not only synchronized the musical events effectively over long stretches in her house debut as conductor. The American (...) brings out the peculiarities of Janáček's music in a winning manner. On the one hand, there are these simple mini-motifs, which develop motoric power in constant repetition and like to rattle along under rugged layers of sound. On the other hand, a lusty folklore breaks through - for example at the end of the Gloria. This is a delight to listen to and yet not coarse, because Canellakis maintains rhythmic accuracy: Chapeau!"