Lidiya Yankovskaya is a conductor with powerful range – from Verdi and Wagner to Price and Prokofiev – and an unshakeable sense of classical music as a living, responsive art form. Her bold, collaborative leadership has shaped the development of dozens of world premieres – including over 20 new operas – and brought fresh urgency to performances with major orchestras and opera companies across the globe. In addition to her international work, she made a transformative local impact as Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, earning consistent recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which credited her with “raising the profile of COT immensely, her interpretations bracing and repertoire head-spinningly varied” and named her Chicagoan of the Year.

This season, fresh off a return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to lead Wagner and Debussy, Yankovskaya makes her Scandinavian debut at Norwegian National Opera with Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She conducts the same work in a to-be-announced return to the United Kingdom and brings her interpretation of Bartok masterwork Bluebeard’s Castle, praised by The Times as “lyrical, polished, and compelling,” to Omaha Symphony. Elsewhere, she conducts orchestras around the world, including her first performances at Vienna’s iconic Musikverein with Tonkünstler Orchester and return engagements with Phoenix Symphony and with London Philharmonic Orchestra, where she leads a world-premiere piano concerto.

Following her acclaimed Australian debut with Puccini’s full Il trittico, Yankovskaya was immediately reengaged by Opera Australia for a new production of Carmen, applauded by Limelight Magazine for her “new insights into often-heard music” and “enormous sensitivity, favouring lightness and clarity without any loss of momentum.” She has also recently conducted Eugene Onegin at Staatsoper Hamburg, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs and Bluebeard’s Castle at English National Opera, Rusalka at Santa Fe Opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Washington National Opera, Carmen at Houston Grand Opera, and Don Giovanni at Seattle Opera. On the concert stage, high-profile engagements include appearances with the Los Angeles, New York, Royal Liverpool, and London Philharmonics; concerts with Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and National Symphony Orchestras; and Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields at Carnegie Hall. She enjoys an ongoing relationship with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, leading concerts at both Symphony Center and the Ravinia Festival.

In her seven seasons as Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, Yankovskaya spearheaded the commissioning of 11 new operas, advancing the work of six female composers and seven creators of color. She led the Chicago premieres of Heggie’s Moby-Dick and Talbot’s Everest, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Szymanowski’s King Roger, before concluding her tenure with a landmark new Francesca Zambello production of Shostakovich’s The Nose. Under her leadership, COT established the Vanguard Initiative, an immersive two-year residency for emerging opera composers that has enriched the repertory with vital new voices and experiences that resonate with today’s audiences.

This adroit combination of musical skill and cultural advocacy is a hallmark of Yankovskaya’s career. She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and grew up immersed in music as a pianist, violinist, and singer. When she immigrated to the United States as a refugee, her devotion to music remained a constant in her life. Those experiences inspired her to found the Refugee Orchestra Project, which proclaims the societal relevance of refugees through music. ROP has brought that message to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world, including appearances in London, Washington, D.C., and the United Nations. In spring 2026, she conducts ROP in performances at New York’s National Sawdust and Boston’s Mechanics Hall. The organization’s important work has been featured on CNN, The Today Show, NowThis, Newsweek, and BBC World Newsday, bringing classical music and artists’ compelling stories to audiences well beyond the concert hall and opera house.

In the first decade of her career, Yankovskaya led several innovative instrumental and operatic organizations, including the Boston New Music Festival, which she founded, and Juventas New Music Ensemble, which was the recipient of multiple NEA grants and National Opera Association Awards under her leadership as Artistic Director. As Music Director of Harvard’s Lowell House Opera, she conducted five seasons of large-scale repertoire including the U.S. Russian-language premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snegurochka. During this time, she also served as Boston Symphony Orchestra's chorus master, with conductors including Andris Nelsons and Bernard Haitink, and worked regularly as a pianist and repetiteur.

Yankovskaya is committed to expanding the impact of classical music and developing the next generation of artistic leaders. In addition to her work with the Vanguard Initiative, she serves as a mentor to emerging conductors with the Taki Alsop Fellowship and volunteers with Turn The Spotlight, an organization dedicated to identifying, nurturing, and empowering leaders among equity-seeking groups in the arts. She was delighted to deliver the 2023 commencement address for graduates of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.

Yankovskaya holds a B.A. in Music and Philosophy from Vassar College, with a focus on piano, voice, and conducting, and earned an M.M. in Conducting from Boston University. Her conducting teachers and mentors have included Marin Alsop, Kenneth Kiesler, and Ann Howard Jones; she has also held assistantships with Lorin Maazel and Vladimir Jurowski. Yankovskaya is the proud two-time recipient of Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards. She has been a featured speaker at the League of American Orchestras and Opera America conferences and served as U.S. Representative to the World Opera Forum in Madrid.