Karina Canellakis
Karina Canellakis has been principal conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra since 2019 and permanent guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2021. She is internationally acclaimed for her symphonic and opera productions, known for their interpretive depth, sophistication and emotional power. Karina is a sought-after conductor with the world's leading music companies.
As chief conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, she programs and leads a multi-faceted season with a broad repertoire: from new composition commissions to great masterpieces, and concert operas, performed in The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht.
Highlights of the 2025-2026 season include her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic during the Mozart Week in Salzburg (January), a seven-day European tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter (February), and her debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg in April/May with a production of Duke Bluebeard's Castle (Bartók) and A Florentine Tragedy (Zemlinsky), directed by new intendant Tobias Kratzer.
She opens the season in August with her debut at the Lucerne Festival, followed by performances at Musikfest Berlin (with the RFO and the Great Broadcasting Choir, in honor of Pierre Boulez's 100th birthday) and the Edinburgh International Festival with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the EIF Choir. In addition, she returns this season to the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony, among others. She will also make her debut with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva.
Each season Karina conducts at least one opera in concert with the RFO at The Concertgebouw. In March 2026, she will conduct Britten' s Peter Grimes, with Allan Clayton in the title role. Previous opera productions include a multi-year Janáček cycle(From a House of the Dead, The Cunning Fox, Káťa Kabanová, The Makropoulos Affair), Wagner's complete Siegfried and parts from Tristan und Isolde and Die Walküre. In summer 2024, she made her critically acclaimed debut at Santa Fe Opera with Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. Last season, she conducted Poulenc's production Dialogues des Carmélites (directed by Olivier Py) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. In previous seasons, she has conducted operas by Tchaikovsky(Eugene Onegin) and Mozart(Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro), among others.
A multi-year recording collaboration between Karina, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and label Pentatone began in April 2023. The first release, featuring Bartók's Concert for Orchestra and Four Orchestral Pieces, immediately earned a GRAMMY nomination. In April 2025, Pentatone released her second album, Duke Bluebeard's Fortress by Bartók, which received international praise. Karina was also featured on the launch of Apple Music Classical, with a recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1, along with Alice Sara Ott and the RFO.
Karina has established close collaborations with many top orchestras worldwide. She regularly returns to European orchestras such as the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestre de Paris, the Wiener Symphoniker and the Münchner Philharmoniker. In the United States, she is a popular guest with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras. From 2019 to 2023 she was permanent guest conductor with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and in the 2023-2024 season she was Artist in Residence at the Musikverein in Vienna. She toured Australia and made her debut in Japan with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo in July 2025.
Karina is also known in the classical music world as a virtuoso violinist. She grew up in New York City, where she learned conducting and score reading from her father, Martin Canellakis. She was encouraged to become a conductor by Sir Simon Rattle while playing violin in the Berliner Philharmoniker as a member of the Karajan Academy. For years she performed as a soloist, concertmaster and chamber musician, including at the Marlboro Music Festival. She eventually chose conducting permanently, after winning the prestigious Sir Georg Solti Award in 2016.
