Joana Mallwiltz has been artistic director and chief conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin since 2023. Stepping in at very short notice at the age of twenty to conduct Puccini's Madama Butterfly in Heidelberg in 2006, it marked the beginning of a successful career that has taken her all over the world.
She has guest conducted orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Wiener Philharmoniker and Symphoniker, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de Paris and the Bamberger Symphoniker.
In 2020, Joana Mallwitz was the first woman to conduct a full opera production at the Salzburg Festival with Mozart's Così fan tutte. She has also enjoyed great success at the Bavarian State Opera and the opera houses of New York, London, Dresden, Frankfurt and Zurich. In March 2026, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra will open the Baden-Baden Easter Festival under her baton with a new production of Wagner's Lohengrin.
In June 2023 Joana Mallwitz made a convincing debut with the Concertgebouw conducting Dvořák's Rusalka at the Dutch National Opera; in March 2024 she led the orchestra in works by Beethoven, Bartók and Kodály.
In 2019, Opernwelt named her Conductor of the Year. The Kurt Weill Album, her first CD with the Konzerthaus-Orchester Berlin, earned her a Gramophone Award and a nomination as Conductor of the Year 2025 by OPUS Klassik.