In opera, Tali has had major success with the production of Carmen at Magdeburg State Opera and 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 London Sinfonietta at New York’s Lincoln Center, London’s Southbank Centre and in Saint Paul/​Minnesota, Seattle and Barcelona. In 2021, she made history as the first woman to conduct an opera at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, in the Calixto Bieito production of Carmen.

Together with her twin sister Kadri, Anu Tali founded 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 Nordic Symphony Orchestra brings together musicians from the world’s leading orchestras, with members from fifteen countries. 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. 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.