“Lina González-Granados, whose contract as the Chicago Symphony’s conducting apprentice has been extended through next year, needed no … springboard when she stepped in for Riccardo Muti on June 16,” writes Hannah Edgar in Thursday’s (6/30) Chicago Tribune. “González-Granados was recently named resident conductor of the Los Angeles Opera, where she will open the 2022-23 season…. Born and raised in Cali, Colombia, González-Granados already globe-trots for podium engagements, especially in Latin America…. Stateside, she’s guest conducted ensembles like the Philadelphia Orchestra and Seattle Symphony, where she held similar conducting fellowships. That’s all to say: It’s not González-Granados’s first rodeo. As [the CSO’s] Solti Conducting Apprentice … it’s her job to prepare … But this month’s ordeal was a special nail-biter. Halfway through an open rehearsal on June 16, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association president Jeff Alexander announced onstage that Muti had tested positive for COVID-19…. With the remaining rehearsal time, she could only run through the Beethoven Violin Concerto with soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter…. That left the Brahms [No. 1] symphony unrehearsed until that evening’s show…. ‘They asked me if I was ready to conduct at least that day and Friday, and I said yes,’ she says.” González-Granados is a board member of the League of American Orchestras.
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