Conductor Canellakis beats a path to Holland
All around Europe, the glass ceilings are starting to shatter for female conductors. Karina Canellakis has been named as the chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra – the first woman to be appointed to such a post with a symphony orchestra in Holland. The American, who made her BBC Proms debut last year and will be appearing again this season, begins her new role in September 2019.
And, as if to prove that anything the Dutch can do the Belgians can do likewise, no sooner has Canellakis’s appointment been made than the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra reveals that Elim Chan, 31, is to be its new chief conductor, also from 2019. With Mirga Gra inyt -tyla and Susanna Mälkki also going great guns at the City of Birmingham Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic respectively, things are looking up.