Yankovskaya joins growing list of classical musicians leaving U.S.

WBEZ

Chicago, IL

Among the ranks of classical musicians leaving the United States, there will soon be another name: Lidiya Yankovskaya, the former Chicago Opera Theater music director who is a familiar presence on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra podium.

Around the time Yankovskaya conducts the CSO and violinist Ray Chen at Ravinia on Saturday — her debut at the prestigious summer festival — her things will be halfway across the Atlantic, en route to London, where Yankovskaya is moving with her family.

Yankovskaya, 39, who has made Chicago her home base since 2017, is among a growing list of classical musicians moving overseas, where she says cultural institutions are supported by a robust public funding apparatus — a starker contrast than ever to the U.S., where the Trump administration is moving to curtail federal investments in the arts.

“I want to be sure that my children can grow up feeling like they can always express themselves freely. I want my children to live in a society that really takes care of its people. I want my children to live in a world that really values things like the arts, that really values things like education,” she told WBEZ on a recent Zoom call from Sydney, where she has been leading Georges Bizet’s classic “Carmen” at the Sydney Opera House. “In London in particular, there is such a culture of valuing intellectualism, of valuing the arts and artistic pursuits for their own sake.”