Yankovskaya moves to UK Amidst Art Funding Cuts in the U.S.

The Violin Channel

New York, NY

Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, who was previously Music Director at the Chicago Opera Theater and who regularly conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is among a number of prominent musicians who are opting to leave the USA, according to a report by WBEZ Chicago.

Yankovskaya first arrived in the USA in 1995, having fled the Soviet Union alongside her mother and sister. But now, as she moves her family to London, she says that she wants to live where cultural institutions are robustly funded. The decision comes amidst the Trump administration's cancellations of federal grants through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the President's sudden dismissal of board members at the Kennedy Center. The Chicago Opera Theater, where Lidiya worked, was among those impacted by the administration's rescinding of NEA grants.

Despite this, Yankovskaya will regularly return to the U.S. for upcoming projects. She will be in Chicago next spring for a performance with the Chicago Opera Theater, plus engagements with the Refugee Orchestra Project — an ensemble she founded at the peak of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2016.