It takes a special strength of will to stay positive in difficult times, and even more determination to share this feeling with others. Conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson found hers most recently by assembling an orchestra of refugee Ukrainian musicians, though it’s likely the resolve was already there. From her family, perhaps, part of whom were Ukrainian and settled in Manitoba, where she was raised. Two grandmothers made it past one hundred years old and she recalls that “they never complained. They might have fallen down the stairs yesterday but it was always, ‘I’m fine!’”
Her father was the conductor of the Winnipeg Youth Orchestra and she grew up helping out in that environment. Eventually, she focused on professional studies in flute that took her to Juilliard, and there she embraced conducting as well, studying with Otto-Werner Mueller and assisting Claudio Abbado while still in school. She took up an assistant conductor post in Dallas after graduating, at a time when there were even fewer women on the podium than today. Thirty years later, she’s led orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, the LA Phil, the Bavarian RadioOSM. Currently, she’s conducting at the Houston Grand Opera (April 28 - May 12), and after that she returns to Covent Garden for (July 10 - 23). The new year promises an abundant symphonic harvest too, including appearances with the Orchestre national Bordeaux Aquitaine, Wrocław Philharmonic, the Lithuanian National Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.
