Around the Music Festival

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has extended the contract of its principal guest conductor, Karina Canellakis. Canellakis will begin her tenure in 2021, and her term will be extended for another three years.

Canellakis is 42 years old, born in New York City. He has a Greek and Russian background. She studied violin at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and later at the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic.

It was at that academy that she was encouraged by Simon Rattle to become a conductor. She studied conducting with Alan Gilbert at the Juilliard School in New York. She also served as assistant to Music Director Jaap van Zweden at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 2006-2012.

In 2015, she gained international attention when she substituted for Nikolaus Harnoncourt on short notice at Austria’s Styriarte Festival, and in 2016 she was awarded the Georg Solti Conducting Award by the Solti Foundation. She made his first guest appearance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018.

In 2019, She was appointed Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; from 2019 to 2023 he was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

PHOTO：Chris Christodoulou