“The wonderful thing about Rusalka, like many great operas, is that the drama and the music are so woven together. So for me, the most important thing is finding that overall arc of the storytelling, and finding how each individual moment fits into the arc.”
Read MoreConductor Lidiya Yankovskaya makes her Santa Fe Opera debut this season with Dvorak’s Rusalka. KHFM Executive Director Brent Stevens does an in-depth preview of the piece and Lidiya’s role as music director.
Read MoreConductor Lidiya Yankovskaya tells us why she thinks Anton Rubinstein deserves to be a more celebrated figure.
Read MoreMusic Director Lidiya Yankovskaya shares her favorite local spots in Chicago with Michigan Avenue Magazine writer J.P. Anderson.
Read More“Mike Goldberg talks with Lidiya on ‘An Hour with the Richmond Symphony,’ discussing her musical background, the impact of Russian and American cultures on her career, and the repertoire for this weekend's program featuring Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, as well as works by American composers John Adams, Florence Price and James Lee III.”
Read More“‘I can’t think of many companies that would do this work. To stage the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is a big risk and a really out of the box idea. Most organisations would not have the confidence, even if they believed in it.’ The 37-year-old conductor debuts tonight at the English National Opera. She reflects on grief, balancing art with emotion and the importance of companies like the ENO.’”
Read More“My job is to bring people together to inspire them and help guide a unified interpretation. I think it would be healthy if all leadership were approached more like that, and less from a standpoint of beating people into submission, forcing something, or proving something. Great music-making isn’t about that and never can be.”
Read More“I am glad that the film has sparked so much conversation about conducting,” said Yankovsaya, a rising star in classical music [and] music director of Chicago Opera Theater. “While it’s unfortunate that Tár is a negative character, I am heartened to know that now, when people think ‘conductor,’ the image in their minds might be of a woman.”
Read More“It's a beautiful opportunity,” says Lidiya Yankovskaya. “A month of rehearsal, where the director, the singer and I get to think every day about every nuance of that emotional dramatic arc over the course of the piece. That is a luxury.” Speaking over Zoom during a rare day off between concerts in Detroit and Knoxville, the Russian-American conductor is palpably excited about her upcoming appearances at English National Opera.
Read MoreConductor Lidiya Yankovskaya was in Knoxville recently to conduct Oliver Herbert in the Dvořák cello concerto, also the Rosenkavalier suite and a new work by Missy Mazzoli. Charlotte Wilson catches up with her to discuss conducting and the future of music.
Read MoreBorn in St. Petersburg, Lidiya Yankovskaya grew up in the United States, where she is a big draw, appearing with a number of prestigious orchestras. At ENO she conducts Henryk Górecki's moving Symphony of Sorrowful Songs in a staged performance.
Read MoreBecause her work is consistently excellent, her tenure has revitalized the company. Yankovskaya is in high demand everywhere… Her mastery of symphonic repertoire is as formidable as her operatic conducting.
Read More“Short phrases are much easier and clearer to conduct; in pieces like this, large gestures across time are key. It’s all one big phrase, and it relies on the conductor to carry that phrasing. When you have that many major chords in a row, how each one is voiced becomes crucial.”
Read More"Refugees often don't talk about refugee status; they don't want it to define them," says Lidiya Yankovskaya, founder and conductor of the Refugee Orchestra Project, an ensemble of top-level musicians from around the globe. "They want to define their own lives for who they are."
Read MoreMonday marks World Refugee Day, something that has added significance this year in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports on the inspiring story of The Refugee Orchestra Project aiming to help them and others.
Read MoreRaised in Russia, with summers in Ukraine, Lidiya Yankovskaya’s family fled St. Petersburg in the post-Soviet Reconstruction era. She founded the Refugee Orchestra Project to raise awareness about the contributions refugees make.
Read MoreMusic can foster dialogue – by telling stories, by transporting us into a different place, a different culture, a different sense of time, a different point in history…
Read MoreResilience has become one of the defining characteristics of Yankovskaya’s musical approach…
Read MoreA growing number of queer-inclusive interpretations of classic works have been filling up season calendars. These deliberately imaginative revivals perform a corrective function, reinstating queer people into cultural contexts where they were previously — and inaccurately — erased.
Read MoreOpera is a collaborative and, at its best, a transformative art form. Chicago Opera Theater ushered in an exciting new artistic era by bringing Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya to COT as music director.
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