Karina Canellakis & Behzod Abduraimov

Karina Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after conductors of her generation. The principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra has been principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2020 and principal guest conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) since 2019.

In the 2021/2022 season she made her debut with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the HR Symphony Orchestra and returned to the San Francisco Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. In the summer of 2021, she made her debut with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood and with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival. On the opera stage, she conducted a new production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. With her Netherlands Radio Orchestra she gave a guest performance of Janáček’s “Kát’a Kabanová” at the Concertgebouw. She conducted the second act of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” at the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the third act of Wagner’s “Siegfried” with the Vienna Symphony at the Bregenz Festival. Previous operatic experience includes Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, “The Magic Flute”, “Le Nozze di Figaro”, David Lang’s “The Loser” and Peter Maxwell Davies’ “The Hogboon”.

Since winning the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2016, Karina Canellakis has appeared with orchestras around the world, including London, Philadelphia, Hamburg, Montréal, Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto, Cincinnati, Minnesota and Detroit. She was the first woman to conduct the First Night of the BBC Proms in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2019. She was also the first woman to be entrusted with the Nobel Prize Concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in 2018.

Karina Canellakis began her career initially as a violinist and chamber musician until she was encouraged by Sir Simon Rattle to devote herself to conducting. For two years she had been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy. Born and raised in New York City, she can nevertheless draw on diverse family lines in various European countries.

The Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov inspires audiences worldwide with his astonishing technique and rhapsodic flair. He won first prize at the London International Piano Competition for his playing back in 2009, even before studying with Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University, Missouri. An esteemed virtuoso, Behzod Abduraimov has worked with many renowned orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris under renowned conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Lorenzo Viotti, James Gaffigan, Jakub Hrůša, Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Gustavo Dudamel, and has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, among others.

Behzod Abduraimov’s 2012 debut CD with works by Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Prokofiev won the “Choc de Classica”, and he also recorded piano concertos by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev for the Decca label. In 2020, his recordings of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and his “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan, recorded on Rachmaninov’s own piano, were nominated in several categories for the Opus Classica awards. His most recent album was released in 2021 with Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”, among other works. There is also a DVD of his debut at the 2016 BBC Proms with the Munich Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev. In the 22/23 season he will appear at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Amare Hall in The Hague, the Conrad Center in La Jolla, at festivals in Aspen, Verbier, the Rheingau and Lucerne, as well as in Berlin with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and, for the first time, with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.