Karina Canellakis has been chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra since 2019 and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2021.
Born in New York City, Canellakis made a name for herself as a violinist. She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2004 and subsequently joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The following year, she was admitted to the orchestra academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, where she gained experience as a soloist, guest leader and chamber musician. Her mentor Sir Simon Rattle encouraged her to become a conductor.
Since winning the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2016, Canellakis has made guest appearances conducting leading orchestras throughout the world, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the stmphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris.
She was the first woman ever to conduct the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm, and the first woman conductor to lead the First Night of the BBC Proms in London.
As chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Canellakis began a critically acclaimed Janáček opera cycle in 2022. She featured as the Artist in Focus at Vienna’s Musikverein in the 2023–24 season, leading four separate orchestras in concerts. Highlights of the 2025–26 season include her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and a production of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy at the Staatsoper Hamburg.
Canellakis made her first appearance with Concertgebouw Orchestra conducting works by Wagner, Skryiabin and Sibelius in October 2024.