“Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska is to be the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s principal guest conductor, filling a position that has been vacant since 2006,” writes Imogen Tilden in Friday’s (1/25) Guardian (U.K.). “The 33-year-old has been conducting professionally for only four years and is the youngest person—and the first woman—to be given a titled conducting position at the London-based orchestra. (She is not, however, the first woman to have a conducting role in a BBC orchestra—that honor went to BBC National Orchestra of Wales’s Xian Zhang in 2015)…. Stasevska’s original training was as a violinist…. In her early 20s and studying the violin, she encountered a fellow female student conducting and was gripped with a passion and determination to do the same…. She pawned her violin to pay for conducting masterclasses … and went on to train with Finland’s top teachers, including Jorma Panula and Leif Seigerstam…. In recent years she has worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestra National de Lyon, Oslo Philharmonic and, earlier this month, made her debut with the London Philharmonia in a contemporary program…. She makes her debut with the orchestra in her new role at the Proms in July.”
Posted January 28, 2019
Dalia Stasevska photo by Jarmo Katila
