Karina Canellakis

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Karina Canellakis is an American conductor and violinist, born in 1981 in New York. She has a Greek and Russian background and grew up in a musical family. Her father Martin became a conductor, her mother Sheryl a pianist. She studied violin at the Curtis Institute and from 2005 to 2007 played in the Orchester-Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker. There Simon Rattle encouraged her interest in conducting. She then studied conducting at the Juilliard School, with Alan Gilbert among others.

Music and breakthrough

In 2014 she became assistant conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She made her European debut in 2015 with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as a last-minute replacement for Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In 2016 she won the Georg Solti Conducting Award. In 2018 she became chief conductor of the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest in the Netherlands, the first woman in that post at a Dutch orchestra. In 2018 she conducted the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm, and in 2019 she became the first woman to lead the First Night of the Proms. Later she also became principal guest conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and first guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Influence

Her recordings include Beethoven (2023), the Concerto for Orchestra (2023) and Duke Bluebeard's Castle (2025). Her career shows that one of the most important conducting posts in classical music is no longer reserved for men alone. She lives with her family in the Netherlands.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2023Beethoven
• 2023Concerto for Orchestra
• 2025Duke Bluebeard’s Castle
• 2026The Bells & Symphonic Dances