“… hugely promising …”
Süddeutsche Zeitung
“… Her conducting technique is flawless …”
Abendzeitung München
“What is most captivating ist he expressiveness of her playing and her impressive presence, which makes her the natural center of the action, she lives “her” music. “Her“ is deliberately chosen because she makes the music entirely her own. She never delivers, but bringst o live. Tylistically, she is absolutely confident, as her personal cadenza in the Mozart concerto and her confident conducting from the piano clearly demonstrate.”
Valérie Groß, Deutsche Grammophon – Jury verdict on the occasion oft he awarding of the Maria- Ladenburger Prize 2020
The German-Colombian conductor and pianist Anna Handler has been performing on stages and in concert halls around the world since her debut at the 2022 Salzburg Festival.
In the 2023/24 season, Handler was a Dudamel Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. After her successful concerts with the LA Philharmonic at Walt Disney Hall, she was immediately invited to return. In September 2024, she will begin her first season as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Her debut with the BSO is expected in 2025 at the prestigious Tanglewood Music Festival. In the 25/26 season, she will conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in Boston.
Following her successful debut at the 2022 Salzburg Festival as Music Director of the Kát’a Kabanová for the renowned Opera Camp series, Handler has returned to the Salzburg Festival to conduct Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges in the 2023 season and Carl Orff’s Die Kluge in the summer of 2024.
Handler’s debuts with internationally renowned orchestras such as the LA Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic mark further highlights of her career to date. She has worked with soloists including Barbara Hannigan, Okka von der Demerau, Sabine Meyer, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Previously, Handler worked as an assistant with renowned conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, including conducting the incidental music from Mazeppa with the Berlin Philharmonic in Baden-Baden. At the Bayerische Staatsoper, she took over the musical direction of the production Eva und Adam, which premiered at the 2019 Munich Opera Festival. The production uses music from Haydn’s Die Schöpfung and was performed by
young people from around Munich who came to Germany as refugees.
Handler grew up in Munich and initially studied piano and conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich before continuing her studies at the Franz Liszt University
of Music Weimar, the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale di Imola and the Folkwang University of the Arts. She completed her master’s degree in conducting at the Juilliard School in New York in May 2023. At Juilliard, she was the first conductor ever to receive the prestigious Kovner Fellowship.
As director of the Ensemble Enigma Classica, which she founded in 2019, Handler works with renowned soloists. She is particularly interested in technology-supported music mediation in
real time. Conducting from the piano and chamber music collaborations with violinist Laura Handler are an important part of her musical identity.
Handler received the Rising Star Award from the European Cultural Foundation Europamusicale and is a scholarship holder of the German Foundation for Musical Life. She was also awarded the Maria Ladenburger Prize for Music in cooperation with WDR, the
Cusanuswerk Foundation and Deutsche Grammophon.
Anna Handler is represented worldwide by Tanja Dorn at Dorn Music.
This approved biography is not to be altered or shortened without the management’s
permission. Please replace older versions.
September 2024
