Conductor

Acclaimed Portuguese conductor Joana Carneiro is Principal Guest Conductor of the Real Filharmonia de Galicia. She is also Artistic Director of the Estágio Gulbenkian para Orquestra, a post she has held since 2013.

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.

Recent and future guest conducting highlights include engagements with the BBC Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Gothenburg Symphony, Norrkoping Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (whom she conducted at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in December 2017), Swedish Radio Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and the BBC Scottish Symphony.

Elsewhere Joana has previously conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Orchestra de Bretagne, Norrlands Opera Orchestra, Residentie Orkest/Hague, Prague Philharmonia, Malmo Symphony, National Orchestra of Spain and the Orchestra Sinfonica del Teatro la Fenice at the Venice Biennale, as well as the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Macau Chamber Orchestra and Beijing Orchestra at the International Music Festival of Macau. In the Americas, she has led the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony and São Paulo State Symphony.

In opera, recent projects include The Handmaid’s Tale (ENO), Nixon in China (Scottish Opera, production nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Awards), Castelo de Barba Azul / Voix Humaine, Rake´s Progress (Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon), Carmen (Royal Stockholm Opera), Wonderful Town (Royal Danish Opera), The Gospel According to the Other Mary (English National Opera, world premiere of Peter Sellars' staged production), La Passion de Simone (Ojai Festival), Oedipus Rex (Sydney, Helpmann Award from Australia for Best Concert by the Symphony Orchestra) and A Flowering Tree (Vienna, Paris, Chicago, Cincinnati, Gothenburg, Lisbon).

As a finalist of the prestigious 2002 Maazel-Vilar Conductor’s Competition at Carnegie Hall, Carneiro was recognized by the jury for demonstrating a level of potential that holds great promise for her future career. In 2003-04, she worked with Maestros Kurt Masur and Christoph von Dohnanyi and conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as one of the three conductors chosen for London’s Allianz Cultural Foundation International Conductors Academy. From 2002 to 2005, she served as Assistant Conductor of the L.A. Chamber Orchestra and as Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra of Los Angeles. From 2005 through 2008, she was an American Symphony Orchestra League Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where she worked closely with Esa-Pekka Salonen and led several performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.

A native of Lisbon, she began her musical studies as a violist before receiving her conducting degree from the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon, where she studied with Jean-Marc Burfin. Carneiro received her Masters degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University as a student of Victor Yampolsky and Mallory Thompson, and pursued doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Kenneth Kiesler. She has participated in master classes with Gustav Meier, Michael Tilson Thomas, Larry Rachleff, Jean Sebastian Bereau, Roberto Benzi and Pascal Rophe.

Carneiro is the 2010 recipient of the Helen M. Thompson Award, conferred by the League of American Orchestras to recognize and honour music directors of exceptional promise. In 2004, Carneiro was decorated by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Mr. Jorge Sampaio, with the Commendation of the Order of the Infante Dom Henrique.

Performance with Joana Carneiro: