Karina Canellakis regards her switch to the podium as ‘a natural evolution’

Before Karina Canellakis became a conductor, the New York City native began her music career as a violinist, after graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2004. She regularly performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a substitute musician in the mid-2000s, so when she conducted the CSO for the first time in 2022, it was “a surreal return” to stand on the podium in such a familiar place.

In any case, coming back to Symphony Center as a conductor simply felt right — a progression into the role that suits her best. “It’s much more natural for me to express myself as a conductor than it ever was as a violinist, so it [becoming a conductor] felt like the natural evolution of things,” Canellakis said in an interview from her home in Amsterdam. 

“Of course, with such a great orchestra, there’s a huge amount of excitement, and there’s a lot of unknown factors when you stand up in front of an orchestra, especially if the players knew you in the past,” she added. “That can create kind of an interesting dynamic, but I remember just feeling ultimate support and warmth from everybody, and that was a beautiful thing to feel.”

Canellakis, who is chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, makes her third podium appearance with with the CSO in concerts April 30-May 3, with a program of Dvořák’s Scherzo capriccioso, Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (with Conrad Tao as soloist) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.

Canellakis’ return to a familiar place comes when she’s reached a certain level of career stability and artistic autonomy. She began her posts at the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (or Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, RFO) and London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2019 and 2021, respectively, and her contracts with both ensembles have been extended, London through 2027 and the RFO through 2031.

In these roles and as an active guest conductor, she feels fortunate to have the freedom to pursue “real passion projects,” especially in the opera world. In March 2025, she led the RFO in Janáček’s From the House of the Dead, completing a cycle of Janáček operas there over the last few seasons.

She conducts at least one concert opera each season with the RFO in the Concertgebouw; in March 2026, she leads Britten’s Peter Grimes, featuring Allan Clayton in the title role. Past concert operas include the aforementioned multi-year Janácek cycle, as well as Wagner’s complete Siegfried, and acts of Tristan und Isolde and Die Walküre. She made her critically acclaimed Santa Fe Opera debut in summer 2024 with Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier and conducted the Olivier Py production of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites” at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. In recent seasons, she has conducted a wide range of opera productions, including Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte and Le nozze di Figaro.

April 2025 brought the release of Canellakis’ recording of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, with the RFO, mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham (as Judith) and bass-baritone Gábor Bretz (as the Duke) on the Pentatone label. Bluebeard’s Castle is “one of my all-time favorite pieces,” Canellakis’ said, one that  she “started to really obsess over” when she played it with the CSO.

The disc has been nominated in the opera category for a 2026 BBC Music Magazine Award. The album was awarded with five stars and labeled as an Opera Choice iast year in its original BBC Music Magazine review, which called it: "A blood-curdling and brilliant Bartók Bluebeard,“ ”Karina Canellakis and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic put on a terrific and terrifying show“ and ”Karina Canellakis conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic if her life depends on it." The BBC Music Magazine Awards are determined by an online ballot. To vote, click here. Voting closes on March 3, 2026.

Canellakis’ upcoming Orchestra Hall concerts mark the next step in her longstanding partnership with the CSO — one that she continues to cherish since transitioning from the violin section to the podium. 

“I’m really excited to come back to Chicago,” she said. “I love coming back to certain orchestras around the world with whom I have a really close relationship, and I get really excited to see the musicians — the actual individual musicians of the orchestra. I like to know people by name, and I like to have a relationship with people.”

This is an update of an article previously published on Experience CSO.