Anu Tali

Conductor

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One of the most intriguing young conductors on the scene today, Anu Tali belongs to a new generation of artists who are searching for fresh musical ideas in the classical music world.

Music Director: Sarasota Orchestra
Music Director: Nordic Symphony Orchestra

Described by the Herald Tribune as “charismatic, brilliant, energetic”, Anu Tali is one of the most intriguing conductors on the international scene today, belonging to a new generation of artists who are constantly striving for fresh and ingenious creativity.

Tali has been Music Director of the Sarasota Orchestra in Florida since 2013. Highlights of the 2019/20 season include appearances with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Brussels Philharmonic, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.

Anu Tali appears regularly with orchestras worldwide including the New Japan and Tokyo Philharmonic orchestras, Orchestre National de France, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras. In Germany she has worked with the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Berliner Konzerthausorchester, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Ensemble Modern.

Following major success with the production of Carmen at Magdeburg State Opera, she was invited to conduct the Freiburger Barockorchester in a production of Gluck’s Telemaco at the Schwetzingen Festival and Theater Basel. Another notable highlight includes acclaimed semi-staged performances of Goebbels’ Songs of Wars I Have Seen with ensembles including the London Sinfonietta at New York’s Lincoln Center, London’s Southbank Centre and in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Seattle and Barcelona.

Together with her twin sister Kadri, Anu Tali founded the Nordic Symphony Orchestra in 1997, with the aim of utilising music as a tool to develop cultural contacts between Estonia and Finland, and to unite musicians from around the world. Today the Nordic Symphony Orchestra has members from fifteen countries, bringing together musicians from the world’s leading orchestras. In autumn 2007 the orchestra undertook its first European tour to Berlin and Munich.

Her debut recording, Swan Flight, (Finlandia/Warner Classics) earned Tali the 2003 ECHO Klassik ‘Young Artist of the Year’ Award. Other recordings include Action Passion Illusion for Warner Classics, featuring works by Rachmaninov, Sibelius and Erkki-Sven Tüür. And her album of Tüür’s Strata and Noēsis, released on ECM, was also met with significant critical acclaim.

Anu Tali has been the subject of numerous documentaries by international broadcasters such as ARTE, NHK Japan, YLE Finland and Deutsche Welle.

She began her musical career as a pianist, graduating from the Tallinn Conservatory before training as conductor at the Estonian Academy of Music with Kuno Areng, Toomas Kapten and Roman Matsow. From 1998 to 2000 she studied at the St Petersburg State Conservatory with Ilya Musin and later with Leonid Kortchmar and Jorma Panula.

“Tali and the 27-year-old Czech pianist, Lukáš Vondráček, collaborated on a brilliant reading of Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” bringing out inner voices and colors that made this work seem reborn. There were ripples of humor, stretches of passion and intense musicality that delineated the kind of music-making generally relegated to the best of chamber performances.”

(Herald-Tribune (Sarasota), November 2013)

“They were led by the brilliant young Estonian conductor Anu Tali […] Ms. Tali conducted grippingly.”

(The New York Times, March 2011)

“The performances are outstanding: Anu Tali already has a very high reputation, and this beautifully recorded and produced disc is without doubt another jewel in her crown.”

(Ivan Moody, International Record Review, January 2011)