Karina Canellakis

Internationally acclaimed for her emotionally charged performances, technical command and interpretive depth, Karina Canellakis has become one of the most in-demand conductors of her generation. She has been Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since September 2021, and recently extended her contract for a further three years, to the end of the 2026/27 season. Karina is also Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

2025/26 with the LPO

Karina Canellakis conducts three concerts in 2025/26. On 22 October 2025 she leads a programme centred around Stravinsky’s riot-inducing The Rite of Spring, complimented by the composer’s Funeral Song and Lili Boulanger’s sensuous Faust et Hélène. This is followed by Rachmaninov’s enduringly romantic Symphony No. 2 on 25 October 2025, paired with a varied portrait of Mozart including his Overture to Idomeneo, the Masonic Funeral March and the Piano Concerto No. 25 performed by Paul Lewis. On 18 February 2026, Karina returns to the Royal Festival Hall stage for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, after which she is joined by Anne-Sophie Mutter for Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

Recent highlights

Karina conducted three concerts in the LPO 2024/25 season, including Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, and Mozart with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. During 2023/24 she also conducted three concerts at the Royal Festival Hall: Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration and a Tania León UK premiere on 25 October 2023; Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony on 28 October 2023; and Brahms’s Fourth on 21 February 2024. She also led the Orchestra on tour to Munich and to Vienna’s Musikverein, where she was an Artist-in-Residence for 2023/24.

More about Karina

Since winning the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2016 Karina has become a guest conductor with leading orchestras around the world. She was the first woman to conduct the First Night of the BBC Proms in London in 2019, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She was also the first woman to ever conduct the Nobel Prize Concert with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in 2018.

Already known to many in the classical music world for her virtuoso violin playing, Karina was initially encouraged to pursue conducting by Sir Simon Rattle while she was playing regularly in the Berlin Philharmonic for two years as a member of their Orchester-Akademie. She performed for many years as a soloist, guest leader, and chamber musician, spending her summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, until conducting eventually became her focus.

Karina was born and raised in New York City.