L A T E S T N E W S

Conductor Daniela Candillari brings her “confidence and apparently inexhaustible verve” (The New York Times) to opera houses and concert stages throughout North America and internationally. She is renowned for guiding groundbreaking world premieres to the stage “with a sure hand” (The New York Times) as well as her “incisive leadership” (Wall Street Journal) of classical music’s most frequently performed masterpieces.

Candillari’s 2024-2025 season concluded with the acclaimed world premiere of This House by Ricky Ian Gordon, Lynn Nottage and Ruby Aiyo Gerber as part of the 50th anniversary season at OTSL. This House was an audience and critical favorite in the company’s 50th season, called “a heart wrenching opera” (The Associated Press), “divinely ordered” (St. Louis American), with a “lush, evocative score” (The New York Times). Earlier in the year, she led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Nina Shekhar’s Accordion Concerto, an SLSO commission, featuring accordionist Hanzhi Wang, on a program with Samuel Barber’s School for Scandal overture and Antonín Dvořák’s “New World” symphony. She returned to New York to lead Trinity Church’s resident orchestra NOVUS in the East Coast Premiere of Gabriel Kahane’s emergency shelter intake form, followed by appearances leading concerts at the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. Other 2024-2025 highlights included a return to New Orleans Opera to conduct Camille Saint-Saëns’ rarely performed French masterpiece, Samson and Delilah, and debuts with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, and Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Her 2023-24 season opened with rave reviews for her “seamless” leadership (The New York Times) of two world premieres:  10 Days in a Madhouse by composer Rene Orth and librettist Hannah Moscovitch at Opera Philadelphia, where she made her company debut; and Jeanine Tesori and George Brant’s Grounded with Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center, also a company debut. Winner of the Best New Opera Award by the Music Critics Association of North America, 10 Days in a Madhouse, about trailblazing reporter Nellie Bly, was also named the best classical music performance of 2023 by the Washington Post, which noted, “under the baton of Daniela Candillari, the ensemble swerved from lush, harmonically rich embraces of memory into disconcerting panic attacks of sound effects.” Immediately following this triumph, Candillari conducted the world premiere of Grounded, a co-commission of the Metropolitan Opera, with the Wall Street Journal praising her “expertly rendered” delivery of “Tesori’s colorful orchestration.”

In the previous season, Candillari made her New York Philharmonic debut in their inaugural season inside the new David Geffen Hall conducting cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Elgar’s Cello Concerto, for which she was praised for her “enthusiastic, energetic yet sensitive direction” and “perfect control over the orchestra” (Broadway World). She made her Carnegie Hall Presents debut leading the American Composers Orchestra in a program of premieres. Other engagements from previous seasons include debuts with the Metropolitan Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin, and productions with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Minnesota Opera, Detroit Opera, Orchestre Métropolitan Montreal, and Classical Tahoe Festival. A passionate educator, she has led opera productions at the Juilliard School and concerts at Manhattan School of Music. She has also led made-for-film world premiere of Clint Borzoni’s The Copper Queen with Arizona Opera, released in 2021 and later screened by Opera Philadelphia in 2022, as well as the film of Ana Sokolović’s Svadba with Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Philadelphia that was released in early 2022 and won Opera America’s 2023 Award for Digital Excellence in Opera.

As a composer, Candillari has been commissioned by established artists including instrumentalists from the Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh Symphonies, as well as the three resident orchestras of Lincoln Center: the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet. She is deeply involved with Music Academy of the West’s programming for young artists and has recently participated in master classes and discussions at DePaul University, Chicago Humanities Festival, and Valissima Institute.

Daniela Candillari grew up in Serbia and Slovenia. The artist holds a Doctorate in Musicology from the Universität für Musik in Vienna, a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a Master of Music and Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the Universität für Musik in Graz. A Fulbright Scholarship recipient, she was also awarded a TED Fellowship, and is fluent in German, English, Italian, Serbian, and Slovenian.