Karina Canellakis traces her journey from burgeoning violinist to thriving conductor
By Steve Holt
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
These Symphony-commissioned feature articles offer insights into the music you’ll hear in the concert hall.
Apr 1, 2024
Music in the Most Natural Way
Karina Canellakis was enjoying a successful career as a young violinist, after graduating from conservatory. But as she recalled, there was never an “a-ha!” moment when she decided to put down her bow and pick up a baton.
“I’d say I was always dreaming of being a conductor, but I didn’t know I was dreaming it until later. In my 20s, playing the violin made for a great life for me, and I had no reason to leave it. While I was still very young I got to play in the Berlin Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony; I was a guest concertmaster here and there; I played in a lot of string quartets; I taught violin. I had all these amazing experiences. But the idea of conducting was slow cooking, simmering; and finally it got to the point where it started to gnaw at me: ‘Why don’t you just try this?’”
Encouraged by such mentors as Simon Rattle, Alan Gilbert (her conducting professor at Juilliard), and Fabio Luisi, Canellakis quickly established herself as a rising star, conducting in the US and Europe, and winning the Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2016. This month she returns for her third outing with the San Francisco Symphony, in a program of works by Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss. “My mentors allowed me to realize that I wouldn’t be a worse violinist if I practiced a bit less while learning how to be a conductor,” she said. “I still love playing; I take my violin with me everywhere on the road. I’ll always be a violinist, but conducting has freed me, and given me such an amazing connection to a whole new world of repertoire, including opera, which I love. Now I feel conducting is the most natural way of music making, even more than violin.”
Amid her busy schedule—she is now Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic—Canellakis returns to the violin often as a way of maintaining musical perspective. “There will be weeks you don’t touch it, but you keep it there. Then you have a few things each season—like playing chamber music in the summer when I get a little time off—that give you a push. It’s so important to keep playing your instrument, even after you become a conductor. You have to keep in contact with the sound and keep it real for you.”
She offered some other advice for young musicians contemplating a conducting career. “When I was young, I was constantly asking friends and teachers for free tickets. Go to as many concerts and rehearsals as possible, every day if you can. That’s where you really absorb all the information you’ll need later.”
Canellakis approaches her work as a conductor with a love for the craft, remembering all those lessons she learned as a young musician. “As every conductor knows, you have to work hard every day for the rest of your life. There’s so much music; you want to do all of it, but there’s not enough time in anyone’s life for that.”
“I’d say I was always dreaming of being a conductor, but I didn’t know I was dreaming it until later. In my 20s, playing the violin made for a great life for me, and I had no reason to leave it. While I was still very young I got to play in the Berlin Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony; I was a guest concertmaster here and there; I played in a lot of string quartets; I taught violin. I had all these amazing experiences. But the idea of conducting was slow cooking, simmering; and finally it got to the point where it started to gnaw at me: ‘Why don’t you just try this?’”
Encouraged by such mentors as Simon Rattle, Alan Gilbert (her conducting professor at Juilliard), and Fabio Luisi, Canellakis quickly established herself as a rising star, conducting in the US and Europe, and winning the Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2016. This month she returns for her third outing with the San Francisco Symphony, in a program of works by Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss. “My mentors allowed me to realize that I wouldn’t be a worse violinist if I practiced a bit less while learning how to be a conductor,” she said. “I still love playing; I take my violin with me everywhere on the road. I’ll always be a violinist, but conducting has freed me, and given me such an amazing connection to a whole new world of repertoire, including opera, which I love. Now I feel conducting is the most natural way of music making, even more than violin.”
Amid her busy schedule—she is now Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic—Canellakis returns to the violin often as a way of maintaining musical perspective. “There will be weeks you don’t touch it, but you keep it there. Then you have a few things each season—like playing chamber music in the summer when I get a little time off—that give you a push. It’s so important to keep playing your instrument, even after you become a conductor. You have to keep in contact with the sound and keep it real for you.”
She offered some other advice for young musicians contemplating a conducting career. “When I was young, I was constantly asking friends and teachers for free tickets. Go to as many concerts and rehearsals as possible, every day if you can. That’s where you really absorb all the information you’ll need later.”
Canellakis approaches her work as a conductor with a love for the craft, remembering all those lessons she learned as a young musician. “As every conductor knows, you have to work hard every day for the rest of your life. There’s so much music; you want to do all of it, but there’s not enough time in anyone’s life for that.”
