We have some great news from our Fellows past and present!
Ruth Reinhardt
Taki Concordia Associate Conducting Fellow, Ruth Reinhardt, has been appointed Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, taking over for 2013 Fellow Karina Canellakis.
Karina was recently awarded the 2016 Georg Solti Conducting Award and has a full schedule of performances this summer with the Concentus Musicus Wien, the Grand Tetons Music Festival, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.
Valentina Peleggi
Fellow Valentina Peleggi continues to enjoy great success as Assistant Conductor of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra where she recently stepped in at the last minute to conduct a full program which included a world premiere for orchestra and alto solo and the Schumann 4th Symphony. She is attending Maestro David Zinman’s conducting masterclass this month with the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich and will be participating in Marin Alsop’s masterclass with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on June 11th at the League of American Orchestras convention. Valentina will be joined in this event by Ruth Reinhardt who will also participate in this masterclass. Valentina was also recently named Honorary Conductor of the Coro Universitario di Firenze in her home city in Italy!
Marzena Diakun
After her triumphant last-minute substitution earlier this year directing Korngold’s opera, Die Tote Stadt, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Assistant Conductor and Associate Fellow Marzena Diakun is thriving in Paris and has been engaged for concerts throughout France, the UK, Poland, and Spain through the 2017 season.
2015 Honorable Mention recipient Lidiya Yankovskaya continues her ground breaking work with the Juventus New Music Ensemble and the Center for Contemporary Opera NYC. She is also the director of the Refugee Orchestra Project which brings together dozens of performers –instrumentalists and singers whose friends and families have fled tothis country to escape violence and persecution — in a large-scale concert performance that highlight their importance to our cultural wealth. The proceeds from the ROP concerts are given to organizations which asylum seekers abroad.
Alexandra Arrieche, our 2011 Fellow, has had a wildly successful time as the new conductor of the Emmy Award winner spectacle “Night of the Proms”, conducting concerts in large venues all over Europe, merging classical and pop genres in a multi-media events for the enjoyment hundreds of thousands of people. Watch her introduction as the new Night of the Proms conductor!
2009 Fellow Mihaela Cesa-Goje continues her excellent work at the Cluj National Opera in Romania, conducting multiple performances of Rossini’s Barber of Seville this season.
One of 2007 Fellow Mei-Ann Chen’s orchestras, the Chicago Sinfonietta, was recently awarded the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions (MACEI) by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Mei-Ann is also the Music Director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and was recently appointed the Artistic Director and Conductor of the 2016 National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Festival.
2006 Fellow Rei Hotoda continues her excellent work as Associate Conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra with a full slate of programs through this season. Here is an interview she gave ABC News in Salt Lake City about being the first female Associate Conductor of this orchestra.
2005 Fellow Jeri Lynne Johnson continues her excellent barrier-breaking work with the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia. You can listen to a recent interview she gave at grammypro.org about her work with hip hop artist Jay Z at his Carnegie Hall debut.
Laura Jackson, our 2004 Fellow, is in her seventh highly successful season of her tenure as Music Director of the Reno Philharmonic.
Lastly, but not leastly, our very first, 2003 Fellow Carolyn Kuan, Music Director of the Harford Symphony Orchestra, has been extending her superb musical reach into the opera repertoire with recent impressive debuts at the Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Tocoma Opera, and the Glimmerglass Opera.
All of us on the TCCF team are so happy for these and all our Fellows’ achievements. We look forward to the increasingly bright future for women as leaders of the great orchestras of the world! Stay tuned…