JoAnn Falletta

Conductor

Condensed Biography

Hailed as a “leading force for the music of our time”, for her work as a conductor, communicator, recording artist, audience builder, champion of American composers and distinguished musical citizen, JoAnn Falletta serves as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center. She has been acclaimed by The Washington Post as having “Toscanini’s tight control over ensemble, Walter’s affectionate balancing of inner voices, Stokowski’s gutsy showmanship, and a controlled frenzy worthy of Bernstein.”

Internationally celebrated as a vibrant ambassador for music and an inspiring artistic leader, Ms. Falletta is invited to guest conduct many of the world’s finest orchestras. She has guest conducted over a hundred orchestras in North America, and many of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. Her North America guest conducting appearances have included the orchestras of Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Seattle, San Diego, and the National Symphony as well as the Montreal and Toronto Symphonies. International appearances include the Liverpool and Manchester-BBC Philharmonics, Scottish BBC Orchestra, Czech and Rotterdam Philharmonics, Orchestra National de Lyon, Mannheim Orchestra, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, and the London Symphony. Asian engagements include appearances with the Korean Broadcast Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, China National Symphony and the Shanghai Symphony. Ms. Falletta’s summer activities have taken her to numerous music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, the Hollywood Bowl, Wolf Trap, Mann Center, Meadow Brook, OK Mozart Festival and the Grand Teton Festival.

In 2016, Falletta was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, joining an esteemed roster that dates back to the Academy's founding in 1780, including America’s founding fathers and more than two hundred fifty Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. She has served as a member of the National Council on the Arts and is the recipient of many of the most prestigious conducting awards including the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award for exceptionally gifted American conductors, the coveted Stokowski Competition and the Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter Awards for conducting, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra League’s prestigious John S. Edwards Award. She has introduced over 500 works by American composers, including well over 100 world premieres.

Falletta, a leading recording artist for Naxos, has been recognized with two Grammy Awards and ten Grammy nominations. Recent recordings include Stravinsky’s The Soldier's Talewith the Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players and narrated by Fred Child, a disc of Victor Herbert’s cello concerti with the and works of Florent Schmitt with the Buffalo Philharmonic. In addition to recording the music of Joseph Marx with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and her fifth world premiere recording of the music of with the London Symphony, this season will see the release of a disc dedicated to the music of Vitezslav Novak with the BPO. Her growing discography includes over 100 titles with the London Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony, Philadelphia Philharmonia, Women’s Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony, and Czech National Symphony.

Since stepping up to the podium as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Maestro Falletta has been credited with bringing the Philharmonic to a new level of national and international prominence. This season, the BPO will once again be featured on national broadcasts of NPR’s Performance Today, SymphonyCast and From the Top, and international broadcasts through the European Broadcasting Union.

Under Falletta’s direction, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra has risen to celebrated artistic heights. The VSO, which made critically acclaimed debuts at the Kennedy Center and New York’s under Falletta and entered into their first multinational recording agreement with Naxos. The orchestra performs classics, pops and family concert series in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News and Williamsburg.

In addition to her current posts with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Virginia Symphony, Brevard Music Center, and Music Advisor to the Hawaii Symphony, Ms. Falletta has held the positions of Principal Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony, Music director of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the Denver Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Falletta received her undergraduate degree in classical guitar from the Mannes College of Music in New York and her master’s and doctorate degrees in conducting from The .