Conductor Joana Carneiro makes her Royal Scottish National Orchestra debut on 26 (Usher Hall, Edinburgh) and 27 April (Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow). She will conduct Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Nyx; the UK premiere of RSNO co-commission: Errollyn Wallen’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Philippe Quint; and Stravinsky’s Petrushka
The RSNO writes: “Love, jealousy, drama and passion… Stravinsky’s Petrushka has it all! Portuguese conductor Joana Carneiro takes to the podium for this supercharged finale but first, charismatic violinist Philippe Quint performs a brand-new violin concerto written by Errollyn Wallen – a composer who believes that in music, ‘there should be room for everything, everyone, and every kind of expression’.”
Joana spring 2024 highlights include her debut with Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine; The Handmaid’s Tale at English National Opera; Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone with Musikkollegium Wintherthur and Real Filharmonía Galicia – where she is in her fourth and final season as Principal Guest Conductor. Forthcoming season highlights include her return to Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir in her native city of Lisbon where she conducts Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and makes debut with the BBC NOW on the 16th May in Cardiff conducting the world premiere of Stephen McNeff’s The Celestial Stranger and Transfigured Night by Arnold Schoenberg. Joana closes the current season with her return to the Canadian capital with the National Arts Centre Orchestra on 12th & 13th June conducting Stravinsky’s Firebird and by debuting with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the opening of the Carinthian Summer Festival. In early August Joana returns to Edinburgh International Festival with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and a production of Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos.
Joana Carneiro was Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa at Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon from 2014 until January 2022. From 2009 to 2018 she was Music Director of Berkeley Symphony, succeeding Kent Nagano as only the third music director in the 40-year history of the orchestra. She was also official guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra from 2006 to 2018.
Joana is in high demand across the globe, particularly for her focus on contemporary music both in the concert hall and on the opera stage. Most recently she returned to London’s Coliseum with the English National Opera for the revival of The Handmaid’s Tale, which she premiered in 2022. This collaboration followed a highly acclaimed London debut of the world stage premiere of John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, directed by Peter Sellars. With Scottish Opera she conducted Nixon in China and in Lisbon, Rake´s Progress. Other recent opera performances include A Wonderful Town (Royal Danish Opera), Simone’s La Passion (Ojai Festival), Oedipus Rex (Sydney, Helpmann Award for Best Concert by the Symphony Orchestra) and A Flowering Tree (Vienna, Paris, Chicago, Cincinnati, Gothenburg, Lisbon). In 2023 Joana conducted the premiere of the ballet production Pit by Bobbi Jene Smith at the Opera Garnier.
