Italy's Teatro Comunale di Bologna Announces New Music Director

Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv will assume the role from January 2022 for three seasons, becoming the first female music director of an Italian opera house

Lyniv succeeds Italian conductor Michele Mariotti in the role, who will be the next music director of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma beginning the 2022-23 season.

In her new position, Lyniv will conduct at least two operas and two concerts for each season. In March 2021, she made her Italian debut with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna orchestra (TCBO) at the Sala Bibiena and returned in May for a live concert at Manzoni Auditorium.

Lyniv shared on her social media that the offer came after her debut concert in Italy. "A country where classical music has an extraordinary history and is an integral part of national culture, Italy is not only a cradle of the world's opera," she said. "This country has given humanity whole eras, where people have changed their views on values and world perception in general."

Most recently, Lyniv made history becoming the first woman to conduct the Bayreuth Opera Festival, with her debut production of "Flying Dutchman." Parallel to her international career, Lyniv is passionately committed to the development of classical music in Ukraine, where she has been recognized as the honorary ambassador of the city of Lviv. She is the founder and artistic director of the LvivMozArt Festival and the founder, conductor, and artistic director of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.

In the 2020/21 season, Lyniv made her debut at the National Opera of Paris and the Frankfurt Opera. She also collaborated with the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and in the revival of “Judith" at the Bavarian State Opera.

She was previously principal conductor of Austria’s Graz Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra and received the Opera!Awards for best female conductor in 2020. Her career took off in 2004, when she won third prize at the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition.

Her first official performance as music director of TCBO will see her conducting a preview concert of the company’s new season on January 14 and 15, 2022. It will involve works such as Wagner’s “The Valkyrie” and Richard Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration Op. 24.

Lyniv’s livestreamed debut in March with the TCBO can be watched below: