“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 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“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 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 MoreResilience has become one of the defining characteristics of Yankovskaya’s musical approach…
Read MoreIt's still rare to see a woman conduct an opera — and rarer still to see a pregnant woman conducting an opera. That's what made Russian American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya's December 2021 all the more eye-catching.
Read MoreLidiya Yankovskaya is an accomplished conductor, having conducted more than 40 world premieres, including 16 operas. She currently works as music director for the Chicago Opera Theater, and in December she welcomed her second child without missing a beat.
Read MoreAmerican-Russian conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya preached about the inclusion of females in the orchestra after she returned to the stage just days after giving birth.
Read MoreIn 2020, COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya led the company in a fully staged world premiere before the pandemic and daring online performances amid the shutdown. In both settings, Yankovskaya and COT emerged as the very model of how to survive adversity, and also how to thrive in it.
Read MoreIf you watch any US orchestra, particularly one with a multimillion-dollar budget, you’re almost guaranteed to see a white man standing on the conductor’s podium. Most estimates put the share of women conductors in America at or below 10 percent—and that’s only if you include those holding the baton for community groups, youth orchestras, and summer festivals. At Chicago Opera Theater, Lidiya Yankovskaya is among the few to crack an especially thick glass ceiling…
Read MoreLidiya Yankovskaya is busy—which, in light of the last six months, is good to hear. The music director of the Chicago Opera Theater, founder of the Refugee Orchestra Project, and former Musical America New Artist of the Month, Yankovskaya is at the moment involved in three projects simultaneously, each requiring major adjustments for the pandemic.
Read MoreAs her smile crescendos, it’s clear that she can’t help but delightedly state the obvious: Lidiya Yankovskaya is “very, very excited for live music.” And come this weekend, the Russian-American conductor’s six-month-long, pandemic-induced concert drought will finally draw to an end…
Read MoreLidiya Yankovskaya is among an increasing number of conductors forming their own orchestras while balancing guest-conducting and staff positions at other orchestras
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