Lina González-Granados to continue as CSO Solti Apprentice through 2023

Update: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association announced June 30 that Lina González-Granados has agreed to extend her tenure as the CSO’s Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprentice through June 2023.

Lina González-Granados, the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprentice of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will continue in that role through June 2022. The extension, announced Sept. 9 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, resulted after her tenure was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A native of Cali, Colombia, González-Granados was selected for the post in November 2019 by the jury of the CSOA’s International Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprenticeship, presided over by CSO Music Director and Jury Chair Riccardo Muti. She began her CSO duties in February 2020, just before the pandemic halted live concerts.

This fall, González-Granados will resume the role and will spend several weeks studying with and assisting Muti during his CSO residency. The apprenticeship, which is supported by the CSO’s Negaunee Music Institute, also creates opportunities for González-Granados to participate in the Institute’s educational and community programs, including guest conducting engagements with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Currently the Conducting Fellow at the Philadelphia Orchestra and previously the Conducting Fellow at the Seattle Symphony, González-Granados has distinguished herself nationally and internationally as a conductor of symphonic and operatic repertoire. She has made podium appearances with the Philadelphia and Seattle orchestras, as well as other major U.S. orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic. She also has worked as a cover conductor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia in the 2017 season and with Tulsa Opera, where she made history as the first Latina conductor to lead a major production in a U.S. opera house.


González-Granados also has been lauded for her dedication to promoting new and unknown works by Latin-American composers. Among her recent honors are a 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, an ECHO Special Award (European Concert Hall Organization) at the 2020 inaugural La Maestra Competition in Paris and a Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award in 2020 and 2021.