Irene Delgado-Jiménez at Wiener Kammeroper in Vienna, Austria On 2 June 2026, the Wiener Kammeroper – the beloved, intimate stage that has nurtured young opera talent and championed musical curiosity for over six decades – opened its final premiere before closing its doors, hopefully not […]
Young conductors today operate in a system that is more competitive, more visible, and in many ways more constrained than ever before. The external image of the profession remains glamorous, but the reality is far less stable. The traditional career path has not disappeared, but […]
A recent social media post reacting to the latest edition of the La Maestra Competition questioned how conductors are evaluated in competitions today. The author noted that none of the candidates advancing were over their early thirties and observed the uniformly polished stage presence of […]
A reminder I want to share with young (and not so young) performers, whether conductors, singers or instrumentalists, and honestly with all of us in this profession: I recently came across a social media post from Kenneth Overton, shared by Bonita Hyman, with an insightful […]
There are places in this world that keep pulling you back, no matter how far you roam. For me, one of those places is San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Known as one of the Pueblos Mágicos – magic towns – it truly lives up […]
When Hector Berlioz published „Le Chef d’orchestre“ in 1856, conducting had been evolving for decades. François Habeneck, founder of the Société des Concerts de Paris, had already redefined the role from mere coordination to profound interpretation, exemplified by his meticulous three-year preparation of Beethoven’s Ninth […]
Why do we feel the need to highlight the gender of a conductor when she’s a woman, but not when he’s a man? The answer lies in history and societal norms. Conducting has been a male-dominated field for centuries. When a woman steps onto the […]
How strange life can be! Today, I spoke with the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, where rehearsals for Verdi’s Luisa Miller had just begun. To my astonishment, tonight, I stumbled upon a live recording of Luisa Miller, the very first production my late husband, Daniel […]
The year 2023 was one of extraordinary success for the young Dutch violinist Hawijch Elders. The 1st prize at the International Henri Marteau Competition was followed by the 4th prize at one of the most prestigious and highly competitive violin competitions worldwide, the Paganini Competition. […]
When I arrived in Winterthur the day before my first rehearsal for Alma Mahler’s “Fünf Lieder”, I took a small walk around the city, popped my head into the hall to listen to the incredible Kalena Bovell and the Musikkollegium Winterthur orchestra rehearse, and then […]
When I was 7 years old and visiting my grandparents, I found my mother’s violin in the attic. I was fascinated by this little wooden box and asked my mother to tell me everything about it. It was immediately clear to me that I wanted […]
It was the morning of May 6th, 2019, and I was sitting on my bed in my hotel room. It was the day of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra audition and I was exhausted. The night before, the Music Director had taken me and the other […]
The moment I heard the piano music of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, an awe-inspiring world of women in classical music opened up to me. As I heard their compositions, which were a blend of late Romantic virtuosity and African American folk expressivity, I knew […]
Women in leadership are one of my focus areas at Pedeva, a human resources management consultancy that I have helped to build over the past few years. I am particularly proud of our programs that support women in their presence and visibility. In the corporate […]