DANIELA CANDILLARI

Conductor Daniela Candillari brings her “confidence and apparently inexhaustible verve” (The New York Times) to opera houses and concert stages throughout North America and internationally. Renowned for guiding groundbreaking world premieres to the stage “with a sure hand” (The New York Times) as well as her “incisive leadership” (Wall Street Journal) of classical music’s most frequently performed masterpieces, she will soon complete her third season as both Principal Conductor at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Principal Opera Conductor at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

Candillari’s 2023-24 season opened with rave reviews for her “seamless” leadership (The New York Times) of two world premieres:  10 Days in a Madhouse by composer Rene Orth and librettist Hannah Moscovitch at Opera Philadelphia, where she made her company debut; and Jeanine Tesori and George Brant’s Grounded with Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center, also a company debut.  10 Days in a Madhouse, starring soprano Kiera Duffy as trailblazing reporter Nellie Bly, plus mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis and baritone Will Liverman, was named the best classical music performance of 2023 by the Washington Post, which noted, “under the baton of Daniela Candillari, the ensemble swerved from lush, harmonically rich embraces of memory into disconcerting panic attacks of sound effects.” Immediately following this triumph, Candillari conducted the world premiere of Grounded, a co-commission of the Metropolitan Opera starring mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, with the Wall Street Journal praising her “expertly rendered” delivery of “Tesori’s colorful orchestration.”

Possessing a “fine combination of fire and attention to detail” (KDHX), Candillari continues her season in February with an appearance at Yale School of Music for Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, followed by an April return to Arizona Opera for Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In June, she will lead Opera Theatre of St. Louis’s company premiere of Handel’s Julius Caesar as well as the annual Center Stage concert, before concluding the season at Music Academy of the West for Bizet’s Carmen in July. 

In the previous season, Candillari made her New York Philharmonic debut in their inaugural season inside the new David Geffen Hall conducting cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Elgar’s Cello Concerto, for which she was praised for her “enthusiastic, energetic yet sensitive direction” and “perfect control over the orchestra” (Broadway World). She made her Carnegie Hall Presents debut leading the American Composers Orchestra in a program of premieres. She also appeared on the Carnegie Hall stage conducting The Choir of Trinity Wall Street in the concert Notes from Ukraine featuring contemporary choral works and a world premiere by composer Trevor Weston. Other symphonic performances included engagements with the Orchestre Métropolitain Montreal, Symphonic Orchestra of Slovenian National Theater in Maribor, and Toledo Symphony Orchestra. On the operatic stage, she debuted with Deutsche Oper Berlin for performances of Lakmé, and conducted Hansel and Gretel at New Orleans Opera, Tosca at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Arizona Opera, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi at Juilliard Opera, plus the world premiere of Arkhipov by Peter Knell and Stephanie Fleischmann at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, four separate programs with Classical Tahoe, and La bohème with Music Academy of the West.

During the 21-22 season, Candillari made her Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice. She also led a new production of Jeanine Tesori’s Blue with Detroit Opera and workshopped the composer’s Grounded with Washington National Opera and the Met Opera. Other engagements included leading Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Carmen at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; the North American premiere of Caroline Shaw, Andrew Yee, and Asma Maroof’s Moby Dick; or The Whale at The Shed with members of the New York Philharmonic; Eugene Onegin at Music Academy of the West; and a concert with the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony. She led the made-for-film world premiere of Clint Borzoni’s The Copper Queen with Arizona Opera, released in 2021 and later screened by Opera Philadelphia in 2022, as well as the film of Ana Sokolović’s Svadba with Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Philadelphia that was released in early 2022 and won Opera America’s 2023 Award for Digital Excellence in Opera.

Other previous season highlights include debuting with the New York Philharmonic conducting Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, co-produced by The Juilliard School; Lyric Opera of Chicago for the Chicago premiere of Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers in 2018 and Jack Perla’s An American Dream in 2019; and LA Opera for Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, prism. Candillari also conducted the West Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain at Music Academy of the West; a new production of Rene Orth’s Empty the House; made her mainstage debut at Arizona Opera conducting Spears’ Fellow Travelers, which she also led in a previous season with Minnesota Opera; helmed acclaimed performances of Acquanetta with PROTOTYPE Festival, which was later recorded and released on Cantaloupe Music; and made her Asian debut in Hong Kong conducting Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Angel’s Bone. She additionally appeared in concert with Trinity Wall Street’s NOVUS NY Festival to open their 2018 season in celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s Centennial.

As a composer, Candillari has been commissioned by established artists including instrumentalists from the Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh Symphonies, as well as the three resident orchestras of Lincoln Center: the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet. An avid educator, she is deeply involved with Music Academy’s programming for young artists and has recently participated in master classes and discussions at DePaul University, Chicago Humanities Festival, and Valissima Institute.

Daniela Candillari grew up in Serbia and Slovenia. She holds a Doctorate in Musicology from the Universität für Musik in Vienna, a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a Master of Music and Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the Universität für Musik in Graz. A Fulbright Scholarship recipient, she was also awarded a TED Fellowship.