Karen Kamensek
Metropolitan Opera - Moby Dick
Heggie's newly staged Moby Dick lands triumphantly at the Met
Throughout the evening conductor Karen Kamensek ably supported the singers and led the great Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in a performance of great beauty and vibrance, while the magnificent all-male chorus – on-stage or off – continually impressed.
Bachtrack (March 12, 2025)Operawire (September 26, 2024)Season 25/26 and Highlights
CALGARY PHILHARMONIC
Smetana - Ma Vlast
Dvorak - Violin Concerto
Strauss, R. - Four Symphonic Interludes from « Intermezzo »
Dvorak - Slavonic Dances
Sep 12/13
GRAN TEATRE DEL LICEU
Glass, P. - Akhnaten
PREMIERE Oct 16
Oct 19/22/27/29/31, Nov 3
ORCHESTRA DE L' OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS
Trade, Managing Director
Amadigi di Gaula, “Pena tiranna”
Flavio, « Rompo i lacci »
Rinaldo, "Lascia ch'io pianga"
Rodelinda, “Vivi, tiranno”
Tolomeo, “Inumano fratel”, “Silence amare”
Glass, P.
1000 Airplanes on the Roof, “The Encounter” (arr. Michael Riesman)
Liquid Days (arr. Michael Riesman)
Monsters of Grace, “In the Arc of Your Mallet” (arr. Michael Riesman)
The Fall of the House of Husher, «How all Living Things Breathe»
No More, You Petty Spirits
Nov 14
-
ORQUESTA SINFÓNICA DE TENERIFE
Ravel - La Valse
Ravel - Piano Concerto in G
Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue
Gershwin - American in Paris
Dec 12
CYPRUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Debussy - Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Glass - Suite from the Hours
Berlioz - Symphony Fantastique
Dec 19
ROYAL SWEDISH OPERA
Langer, E. - Figaro Gets a Divorce
PREMIERE Jan 31
Feb 3/7/11/17/25, March 4/7/11
CALGARY PHILHARMONIC
Verdi - Messa da Requiem
March 18/20
OPÉRA ROYAL DE WALLONIE-LIEGE
Mernier, B. - Bertelby (World Premiere)
Poulenc - The Human Voice
PREMIERE May 13
May 15/17/19/21
NETHERLANDS RADIO PHILHARMONIC
Glass, P. - Akhnaten
June 6
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Glass, P. - Symphony No.15 “Lincoln” (World Premiere)
Barber - Violin Concerto
Gershwin - An American in Paris
June 12/13
ORQUESTRA SINFÔNICA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO
Ortiz, G. - Antrópolis
Shostakovich - Piano Concerto No. 2
Bartók - Concerto for Orchestra
June 25/26/27
Biography
Grammy Award-winning conductor Karen Kamensek impresses with her stylistic versatility and deep commitment to composers of the 20th and 21st centuries – qualities that characterize her work both on the opera stage and in the concert hall.
-
In the 2026/27 season, she continues her work as Principal Guest Conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, while in the operatic arena she makes her debut at the Finnish National Opera with Poul Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale and returns to the Opéra national du Rhin for Donizetti's Lucie de Lammermoor . Her other engagements in the 2026/27 season include debuts at Beethoven Bonn Orchestra, at the Mulhouse Symphony Orchestra and at the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande , return engagements with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and the Festival Ultraschall Berlin, a joint project of the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra and the Jyväskylä Sinfonia, and a guest conducting engagement at her alma mater, Indiana University.
In the summer of 2026, Kamensek made her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and at Tanglewood with the world premiere of Philip Glass's Symphony No. 15, "Lincoln," and conducted Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel at the Longborough Festival Opera. Her operatic engagements for the 2025/26 season included debuts at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona with Glass's Akhnaten , at the Opéra national de Paris , where she conducted the Paris Opera Orchestra with Anthony Roth Costanzo in a program featuring works by Handel and Glass, and at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège with the world premieres of Benoît Mernier's Bartleby and Poulenc's La Voix humaine . She also returned to the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm for the Swedish premiere of Elena Langer's Figaro Gets a Divorce . Other recent highlights include Tosca at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, La bohème at Houston Grand Opera, and Candide at the Semperoper Dresden Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale at San Francisco Opera, as well as Heggie's Moby-Dick , Akhnaten , and Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She has performed Akhnaten and Satyagraha at the English National Opera, Heggie's Dead Man Walking and Bernstein's Candide at Welsh National Opera, Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Victoria Borisova-Ollas's Dracula at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, the world premiere of Glass's ballet Alice at the Opéra national du Rhin, and Bernstein's Wonderful Town at the Norwegian National Opera. Further engagements have taken her to, among other places... Deutsche Oper Berlin , the Oper Frankfurt , Opera Australia (Melbourne) and the San Diego Opera.
In the 2025/26 season, Kamensek made her debut with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir in a concert performance of Glass's Akhnaten at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. She opened the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra's subscription series and returned for Verdi's Requiem ; further engagements took her to the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she has conducted numerous renowned orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, the Orquesta Sinfónica RTVE in Madrid, the Colorado Symphony, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, the Calgary Philharmonic, the Tiroler Symphonieorchester and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.
Karen Kamensek served as the Music Director of the Staatsoper Hannover from 2011 to 2016. She has also held positions as First Kapellmeister at the Volksoper Wien (2000–2002), Music Director of Theater Freiburg (2003–2006), Interim Music Director at the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor (2007–2008), and Associate Music Director at the Staatsoper Hamburg (2008–2011).
2026/27
—
Any changes or reductions must be approved by ARSIS Artist Management. Please do not use older material.
