Dalia Stasevska’s charismatic and dynamic musicianship has established her as a conductor of exceptional versatility. Chief Conductor of Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director to the International Sibelius Festival, Stasevska also holds the post of Principal Guest Conductor to the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She has made several appearances at the BBC Proms and conducted the Last Night of the Proms in 2022. Together with BBC Symphony Orchestra, they opened the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival.
The 2022–23 season sees Stasevska conducting orchestras such as Chicago, Cincinnati, San Francisco and Toronto symphony orchestras, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra Washington. She will return to the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and to the Los Angeles Philharmonic following her successful Hollywood Bowl debut in summer 2022. She also appears with Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg.
In summer 2022 she toured to Germany with BBC Symphony Orchestra making her debut at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and in autumn 2022 they embark on a six-concert tour to Japan with soloists Sol Gabetta, Nicola Benedetti and Roderick Williams. In spring 2023 Stasevska and BBC Symphony Orchestra collaborate on a project with Grégoire Pont at the Barbican Centre titled Our Precious Planet. Performing works of living composers is a core part of Stasevska’s programming, and with Lahti Symphony Orchestra they present works by Missy Mazzoli, Andrew Norman, Thomas Adès, Helen Grime, Kaija Saariaho and Outi Tarkiainen, to name a few. Recent highlights include performances with the Baltimore and Seattle symphony orchestras and Orchestre National de France; returns to Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and NAC Orchestra; and the opening of the Tongyeong Festival.
A passionate opera conductor, Stasevska debuts at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival this season with a revival of the iconic Peter Halls production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In previous seasons she returned to the Finnish National Opera and Ballet to conduct a double bill of Poulenc’s La voix humane and Weill’s Songs with Karita Mattila, and to Norske Opera to conduct Madama Butterfly and Lucia di Lammermoor. Other productions include Don Giovanni with Kungliga Opera Stockholm, directed by Ole Anders Tandberg; Eugene Onegin at the Opéra de Toulon; Cunning Little Vixen with Finnish National Opera; and Sebastian Fagerlund’s Höstsonaten at the 2018 Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, featuring Anne-Sofie von Otter.
Stasevska originally studied as a violinist and composer at the Tampere Conservatoire and violin, viola and conducting at the Sibelius Academy. As a conductor her teachers include Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. She received the Order of Princess Olga of the III Degree by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in October 2020 for her significant personal contribution to the development of international cooperation, strengthening the prestige of Ukraine internationally, and popularization of its historical and cultural heritage. In December 2018, she had the honor of conducting the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm. Stasevska was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Conductor Award in 2020.
Photo credit: Veikko Kähkönen