Guilderland grad, conducting star to lead Albany Symphony

Albany Times-Union

Albany, NY

When she was a 17-year-old Guilderland High School student, Lidiya Yankovskaya picked up her first baton to conduct Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7.

Now, Yankovskaya is returning to lead Albany Symphony in a program that connects her Capital Region roots to her current career as an internationally renowned conductor on March 8 at Proctors in Schenectady.

Yankovskaya attributes her career to Guilderland High School’s extensive music program and the late Jeffrey Herchenroder, a long-time bassist for Albany Symphony and her music teacher. Herchenroder “suggested that I conduct and put me up on the podium” for the Dvorak symphony performed by her high school peers, Yankovskaya said. In a full-circle moment, the Dvorak piece will be on her Albany Symphony program.

“When I conducted for the first time, and when I led this piece and through the rehearsal process as well as the performance, it became clear to me that this was just right,” Yankovskaya said. “Sometimes, you have these moments in life where you just land somewhere, and it feels right. It’s the place you’re supposed to be, and that was absolutely the case for me.”

The evening also includes “Orpheus Undone” by Missy Mazzoli, which draws thematic parallels with the Dvorak symphony in its exploration of grief and trauma. Over her career, Yankovskaya earned a reputation for conducting new and rare operas, said Albany Symphony Executive Director Emily Fritz-Endres, as well as commissioning new works when she was the music director at Chicago Opera Theater.

For Yankovskaya, opera taps into her loves of the “collaborative aspect” of conducting and storytelling.

“Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways in which we connect as human beings, and this has always been the case throughout the history of humanity,” Yankovskaya said. “Storytelling is how we evolve as humans. It is how we make change and enact change. It is how we preserve tradition as well, and how we deal with emotional crises, and also how we absorb the most joyful times in our lives.”