Anna Handler

  1. Home
  2. Wiki
Anna Handler
Handler in 2019
Born (1996-04-16) April 16, 1996 (age 29)
Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
Occupation(s)Conductor, pianist
Websiteannahandler.com/index.php?lang=en

Anna Isabella Handler (born 16 April 1996) is a German conductor and concert pianist. Since launching her professional career about 2019 while still completing her studies, she has gained experience with many European orchestras conductors, and soloists, winning several prizes. Since September 2024, Handler has been an Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO).

Education

[edit]

Anna Handler was born to a German father and a Colombian mother in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, where her parents worked as engineers. She grew up in Munich, Germany, and initially formed a singing duo with her younger sister. She studied piano and conducting with Ingrid Fliter at the Accademia Pianistica di Imola,[1] with Adrian Oetiker at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich,[2] with Henri Sigfridsson at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen,[3] with Nicolás Pasquet and Ekhart Wycik at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar,[3] and with Pavel Gililov at the Musikakademie in Liechtenstein.[citation needed]

Handler graduated from the Juilliard School in May 2023 where she studied with David Robertson and was awarded the Juilliard Kovner Fellowship for outstanding students of classical music, the first conducting student to receive it.[4]

Career

[edit]

At the Bayerische Staatsoper, she assisted Oksana Lyniv and took over the musical direction of the production Eve and Adam, which premiered as part of the 2019 Munich Opera Festival.[4] Following her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2022 as musical director of the Káťa Kabanová opera camp, Handler was immediately re-engaged to conduct new productions of Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges (2023) and Orff's Die Kluge (2024).

In the 2022/2023 season she debuted with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein,[5] OFUNAM Orchestra Filarmónica de la UNAM in Mexico,[3] and Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle in Schwerin.[6]

In the 2023–2024 season she debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Graz Philharmonic, and the Munich Radio Orchestra.[4] She was also a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2023–2024 season.[4]

In 2024, Andris Nelsons named Handler to a two-year term as an Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra starting in September of that year.[7] She made her BSO debut at Tanglewood in 2025.[citation needed]

Handler has assisted such distinguished conductors as Kirill Petrenko, including conducting the Banda for the concert opera production Mazeppa with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra;[3] Daniel Harding (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks), Barbara Hannigan (LSO, Munich Philharmonic); Manfred Honeck, Mei-Ann Chen, and Simone Young.

As founder and director of the ensemble Enigma Classica, Handler has collaborated with notable soloists including Arabella Steinbacher, Daniel Müller-Schott, Sabine Meyer, and her sister, violinist Laura Handler, with whom she performs as a piano-violin duo.[4] Reviewing one of the ensemble's 2020 concerts in Abendzeitung München, Michael Bastian Weiß wrote:[8]

If you would like to see what is possible in terms of direct communication between an orchestra and its conductor, you must listen the Ensemble Enigma Classica under its founder Anna Handler. Every encouraging smile, every sharp look, every stimulating gesture leads to immediately audible consequences from the excellent young musicians, who pay attention to their boss as if hypnotised. The conductor who grew up in Munich, not yet in her mid-twenties, is infinitely more than a motivational coach: her conducting technique is impeccable.

Together with her team at Enigma Classica, Handler presented an interdisciplinary project on music education, featuring real-time generative video animation at the Young Artist Festival Bayreuth in August 2022.[3] She was awarded the Maria Ladenburger Förderpreis in cooperation with WDR, the Cusanuswerk Foundation, and Deutsche Grammophon. On that occasion jury member Valérie Groß of Deutsche Grammophon wrote:[9] {{Quote=What is most captivating is the expressiveness of her playing and her impressive presence, which makes her always the center of the action; she lives "her" music. "Her" is intentionally chosen because she makes the music entirely her own. She never just delivers it, but brings it to life. Stylistically she has absolute confidence; her personal cadenza in the Mozart concerto and her sovereign conducting from the piano clearly prove that.}} She has also received the Rising Star Award from the European Cultural Foundation Europamusicale.[3]

Video Recordings

[edit]

Awards

[edit]
[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Anna Handler alla Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO)". Accademia Pianistica di Imola. 2024-02-09. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  2. ^ "Anna Handler, piano". lvivmozart.com. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rabinowitz, Chloe (2024-02-08). "Boston Symphony Orchestra Appoints Anna Handler as New Assistant Conductor". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Anna Handler. Biography". Salzburg Festival. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  5. ^ "Anna Handler. Conductress". kulmag.live. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  6. ^ "Anna Handler debuts with the BBC Philharmonic" (in German). KD Schmid Artists Agency. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  7. ^ "Boston Symphony appoints Anna Handler as Assistant Conductor". Pizzicato. 2024-02-09. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  8. ^ Michael Bastian Weiß (2020-10-21). ""Enigma Classica" in der Reithalle: Super scharf!" (in German). Abendzeitung München. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  9. ^ "Anna Handler, Conductor/Pianist". Dorn Music. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  10. ^ About the Program. Kovner Fellowship Alumni. Juilliard School.