Anne Manson

 Recording Orfee with Philip Glass

Conductor Anne Manson has achieved a series of historic milestones. She was the first woman to conduct at the Salzburg Festival, where she led the Vienna Philharmonic in Boris Godunov. She is Music Director of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra with whom she has led two hugely successful tours: one with world famous soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian that comprised appearances in San Francisco, Orange County, Vancouver, Toronto, Boston and  Carnegie Hall. In September she conducted the orchestra in a Canadian tour with famed percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.

 

Ms. Manson’s conducting spans the globe. She is the third woman to have been appointed Music Director of a leading American symphony orchestra, having served as Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony from 1999 to 2003, where she was widely hailed for transforming the standard of orchestral playing. She came to prominence early in her career as Music Director of the London-based Mecklenburgh Opera (from 1988 to 1996),  programming operas ranging from Mozart to 20th-century rarities, while commissioning world premieres from a host of contemporary composers. She regularly conducts the Orquesta de Extremadura in Spain.

 

Last season’s opera appearances included Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Canadian Opera Company, for which she received Canada’s DORA Award for outstanding musical direction, the top Canadian prize for theater, dance, and opera. She made her debut at the Minnesota Opera in the U.S. premiere of Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio and was immediately invited back to conduct Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda for the 2010-2011 season.

 

Recent opera appearances include Samuel Barber’s Vanessa for New York City Opera, about which the New York Times said, “Ms. Manson… has broken into the New York opera scene, and it’s about time.” For this production she won the Richard F. Gold Debut Award which is presented to the best debut artist of the season. She has also conducted Così fan tutte for San Francisco Opera, the world premiere of Scott Wheeler’s Democracy (commissioned by Placido Domingo) for Washington National Opera, and Orpheé by Philip Glass for Glimmerglass opera. Other major productions include Carlisle Floyd’s Susanna for the Grand Theatre de Genève, and Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma for the Stockholm Royal Opera.

 

In the 2009-2010 season she makes her debut with the American Composers Orchestra in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with a program featuring Conversations with Cachao by Paquito d’Rivera and world premieres by Sebastian Currier and Roger Zare. In Canada, she will record live concerts this season with soprano, Measha Brueggergosman and recorder virtuoso Michala Petri. In April, she will lead the Juilliard Opera Center in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites.

 

A reputation for excellence in the central German repertory, combined with a passionate advocacy of music of the present, has led to invitations to leading orchestras worldwide: she has conducted Paris’ Ensemble Intercontemporain, the London Philharmonic, the Royal National Scottish Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Leipzig Radio Orchestra, and the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. In America her engagements include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

 

Recent recordings include two releases for BIS: a flute concerto by Mari Takano with flautist Sharon Bezaly and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and tuba concerti with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra with tubist Øystein Baadsvik.