“I was sad, in a way, to find out when I got this position – and we didn’t know this until we did some research – that I was the only female music director of a major opera company in this country. But I think it’s starting to change, and there are so many amazing women doing work out there, conducting and directing, and doing behind the scenes work leading companies.”
Read More“If I could come up with an ideal position for myself, I would come up with just this one. Chicago Opera Theater in all respects is perfectly suited to what interests me – namely, modern, unusual and rare operas.”
Read MoreLidiya Yankovskaya, the newly named music director of Chicago Opera Theater, has built an imposing reputation in opera and new music. Her schedule includes symphonic and opera assignments across the country. Here she chats with OPERA America President/CEO Marc A. Scorca about her life and career, and the challenge of developing new audiences for opera.
Read MoreThe Russian-born conductor comes to Chicago bearing an extensive East Coast resume.
Read More“Lidiya represents the future of opera,” noted COT Board Vice President Susan Irion. “She is as skilled with operas of the past as she is with works of living composers, and often collaborates with other arts and community groups to create productions highly relevant to her audiences.
Read MoreConductor Lidiya Yankovskaya chats with Classical WETA's Nicole Lacroix about how musical styles illustrate comic or macabre action in two modern mini-masterpieces.
Read More“It’s my way of giving back,” she said. “To me, as a musician, there’s only so much I can do to help this and other issues today, and I don’t have millions of dollars that I can donate to some organization to make an impact. But I can do something like this.”
Read MoreThe European refugee crisis put a spotlight on the plight of displaced people. One U.S. organization is focusing that gaze through music – and it’s a mission it takes very personally.
Read MoreIf there were a futures market for classical music, the touts would be pushing Lidiya Yankovskaya.
Read MoreAt the project’s second-ever show, around 60 people were in the church pews while more than 81,000 people watched the livestream.
Read MoreBeing anti-art means being anti-diversity. In threatening to slash our country’s meager support for artistic expression, our current leaders demonstrate once again their preference for uniformity and conformity. Refugee Orchestra Project celebrates diversity and multiculturalism—two of the most powerful attributes of our nation—through our artistry.
Read MoreAn opera about a transgender man moving from Afghanistan to the United States premiering in Boston this weekend could be perceived as a political statement, a critique of the government, a call to action. Composer Leo Hurley and librettist Charles Osborne could have conceived the idea for the opera while flipping through The New York Times the last month. But this opera’s story doesn’t begin on the front page of The Times, and that’s not really what this story is about.
Read MoreWith all the current news about refugees driven by conflict, hardship, or climate change, it’s only timely to have the makings of a refugee orchestra. But as it turns out, in classical music, refugee performers and composers are practically a tradition.
Read More“In the arts we have to be aware that artists come from all different backgrounds and viewpoints on all different issues,” she said. “But I think there is a point that’s beyond politics. To me the idea of welcoming individuals from different nations is something that surpasses politics, and just becomes something that’s key to being human, and humanity, and especially to the culture of this country.”
Read MoreBMInt has recognized the value of Juventas New Music Ensemble’s performances across many disciplines with more than a dozen rave reviews. The Intelligencer has also registered great pleasures in the accomplishments of conductor and Artistic Director Lidiya Yankovskaya. Therefore we point to our readers Juventas’s Music in Motion, a journey through 100 years of music interpreted through theatrical puppetry, featuring established works from the last 100 years alongside three world premieres and a pre-show one-act comic opera.
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