LidiyaYankovskaya
- Conductor


About Lidiya
Artistic Director & Conductor: Refugee Orchestra Project Artistic Director: Vanguard Initiative (Chicago Opera Theater)
"Lidiya Yankovskaya’s passionately committed conducting...sweeps the drama along with an idiomatic flow..." (The Telegraph)
American conductor, Lidiya Yankovskaya is a conductor with powerful range – from Verdi and Wagner to Price and Prokofiev.
This season Lidiya will make various debuts, highlights of which include in Scandinavia with Norwegian National Opera (Eugene Onegin) and in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchester and return engagements with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Phoenix Symphony.
Her bold, collaborative leadership has shaped the development of dozens of world premieres – including over 20 new operas – and brought fresh urgency to performances with major orchestras and opera companies across the globe, including the London, LA, and New York Philharmonics, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Norwegian National Opera, and Opera Australia.
In addition to her international work, she made a powerful local impact as Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, earning consistent recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which credited her with “raising the profile of COT immensely, her interpretations bracing and repertoire head-spinningly varied” and named her Chicagoan of the Year.
Season Highlights
Photos
News
Press
Eugene Onegin
The Grange Festival, UKJun 2026What really makes this radical view of Tchaikovsky’s opera cohere is Lidiya Yankovskaya’s passionately committed conducting: she sweeps the drama along with an idiomatic flow that draws excellent playing from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra – the solo wind and mellow solo horn evoking a world of romantic possibilities that were never to be.
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