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Karen Kamensek (born January 2, 1970, in Chicago) is an American orchestral and opera conductor.
Karen Kamensek | |
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Karen Kamensek (born January 2, 1970, in Chicago) is an American orchestral and opera conductor.
Kamensek's parents immigrated from Kamnica pri Mariboru, Slovenia to the United States, eventually settling in the Louisville, Kentucky area. She is an alumnus of New Albany High School.
Having undergone musical education from an early age, she won the Louisville Orchestra Young Artists Competition before attending Indiana University for undergraduate and graduate studies. Kamensek received degrees in orchestral conducting and piano performance from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. [1]
Kamensek has served as the first Kapellmeister of the Volksoper Wien from 2000 to 2002. She was General Music Director (Generalmusikdirektorin, abbreviated as GMD) of the Theater Freiburg from 2003 to 2006, the first female conductor in Freiburg history. She has served as Interim Music Director at the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor from 2007 to 2008, and Associate Music Director at the Staatsoper Hamburg from 2008 to 2011. [2] In 2011, she was named GMD and principal conductor of the Staatsoper Hannover, the first female conductor to hold the Hannover posts. She relinquished the GMD title in 2015,[ citation needed ] and remained as principal conductor through 2016. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Kamensek made her English National Opera (ENO) conducting debut in March 2016 with Philip Glass's Akhnaten . [7] [8] [9] Kamensek has frequently collaborated with Glass [10] and conducted the 2005 Orange Mountain Music recording of the composer's Les Enfants Terribles . [11] In 2017, Kamensek gave her debut concert at The Proms, with Britten Sinfonia, conducting the first full live performance of Philip Glass's and Ravi Shankar's Passages , with Shankar's daughter Anoushka Shankar as soloist. [12] She returned to ENO for their 2018 revival of Glass' Satyagraha. [13]
In November 2019, Kamensek made her Metropolitan Opera conducting debut with Akhnaten. [14] On 23 November 2019, Kamensek conducted the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD performance and cinema transmission of Akhnaten, [1] the second female conductor ever to be featured in the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series. The recording of Akhnaten subsequently won a 2022 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
Philip Glass is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass describes himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures", which he has helped to evolve stylistically.
Akhnaten is an opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, written by the American composer Philip Glass in 1983. The libretto is by Philip Glass in association with Shalom Goldman, Robert Israel, Richard Riddell, and Jerome Robbins. According to the composer, this work is the culmination of a trilogy including his two other biographical operas, Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha. These three people were all driven by an inner vision which altered the age in which they lived: Akhenaten in religion, Einstein in science, and Gandhi in politics.
Hanover State Opera is a German opera company based in Hanover, the state capital of Lower Saxony. The company is resident in the Hanover Opera House, and is part of a publicly-funded umbrella performing arts organisation called Hanover State Theatre of Lower Saxony, or simply Hanover State Theatre.
Satyagraha is a 1979 opera in three acts for orchestra, chorus and soloists, composed by Philip Glass, with a libretto by Glass and Constance DeJong.
The Staatskapelle Berlin is a German orchestra and the resident orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, Unter den Linden. The orchestra is one of the oldest in the world. Until the fall of the German Empire in 1918 the orchestra's name was Königliche Kapelle, i.e., Royal Orchestra.
Michael Andreas Gielen was an Austrian conductor and composer known for promoting contemporary music in opera and concert. Principally active in Europe, his performances are characterized by precision and vivacity, aiding his ability to interpret the complex contemporary music he specialized in.
The Staatsoper Stuttgart is a German opera company based in Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Staatsorchester Stuttgart serves as its resident orchestra.
George Alexander Albrecht was a German conductor and composer, who also worked as a musicologist and academic teacher. A prolific composer at a young age, he was Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Staatsoper Hannover from 1965 for 30 years, where he led not only the major operas by Mozart and stageworks by Wagner, but contemporary composers, such as Aribert Reimann's Troades in 1987. He was GMD of the Nationaltheater Weimar from 1996, and taught at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar. Albrecht promoted the works of neglected composers such as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Pfitzner, and Erwin Schulhoff.
Johannes Fritzsch is a German conductor.
Julia Jones is a British conductor.
Cornelius Meister (born 23 February 1980 in Hannover, is a German conductor and pianist.
Richard Bernstein is an American bass opera singer. A Metropolitan Opera company member since 1995, Bernstein has appeared in over 500 of its performances, including the Grammy award-winning Akhnaten in 2022. His repertoire includes the bel canto of Rossini, classic French opera, and 20th-century works, among others.
Phelim McDermott is an English actor and stage director. He has directed plays and operas in Britain, Germany, Spain, the United States, and Australia. McDermott was a co-founder of the Improbable theatre in 1996.
Kevin John Edusei is a German conductor. He is in his eighth and final season as Chief Conductor of Munich Symphony Orchestra, and from the 2022/2023 season will be Principal Guest Conductor of Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
Anja Bihlmaier is a German conductor.
Hans Zanotelli was a German conductor.
Rihab Chaieb is a Tunisian-Canadian mezzo-soprano.
Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg is the symphony orchestra of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, founded in 1887. It plays concerts in the Konzerthaus Freiburg and opera in the Theater Freiburg.
The Hanover State Symphony Orchestra is based in Hanover, the state capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. It serves as the orchestra of the Hanover State Opera, and primarily performs its symphony concerts at Hanover Opera House.
Günther Wich is a German conductor who was Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Staatsoper Hannover, and for 17 years of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. He was professor of conducting at the Musikhochschule Würzburg.
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