Anna Rakitina
About this Artist
Following a series of highly acclaimed appearances with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony in the 2021/22 season, Anna Rakitina established herself firmly as one of the most exciting and sought-after conductors of the new generation. Rakitina remains assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) under Music Director Andris Nelsons until summer 2023. She is only the second woman in the orchestra’s history to hold this position and has since become a much-loved member of the BSO family.
The 2022/23 season sees Anna Rakitina’s much-anticipated return to the Tanglewood Music Festival as well as to Boston’s Symphony Hall as part of Boston Symphony Orchestra’s subscription series. Further highlights of the season include her debuts with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Tonkünstler-Orchester at the Musikverein, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra at Suntory Hall, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música.
Rakitina is second-prize winner of the 2018 Malko Competition and also won prizes at the 2017 Deutscher Dirigentenpreis and 2015 TCO International Conducting Competition Taipei. She was a 2019/20 LA Phil Dudamel Fellow and conducted LA Phil youth concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall as well as education and community programs such as Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA).
Born in Moscow to a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother, Rakitina grew up in a musical family and began her education as a violinist before she studied conducting at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the class of Stanislav Diachenko. From 2016 to 2018 she studied conducting in Hamburg, Germany, with Ulrich Windfuhr. In 2022 she participated in the Ammodo conducting master class of the Concertgebouworkest, led by Fabio Luisi.