Karen Kamensek (born January 2, 1970, in Chicago) is an American orchestral and opera conductor.
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Biography
editKamensek's parents immigrated from Kamnica pri Mariboru, Slovenia to the United States, eventually settling in the Louisville, Kentucky area. She is an alumnus of New Albany High School.
Having undergone musical education from an early age, she won the Louisville Orchestra Young Artists Competition before attending Indiana University for undergraduate and graduate studies. Kamensek received degrees in orchestral conducting and piano performance from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.[1]
Kamensek has served as the first Kapellmeister of the Volksoper Wien from 2000 to 2002. She was General Music Director (Generalmusikdirektorin, abbreviated as GMD) of the Theater Freiburg from 2003 to 2006, the first female conductor in Freiburg history. She has served as Interim Music Director at the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor from 2007 to 2008, and Associate Music Director at the Staatsoper Hamburg from 2008 to 2011.[2] In 2011, she was named GMD and principal conductor of the Staatsoper Hannover, the first female conductor to hold the Hannover posts. She relinquished the GMD title in 2015,[citation needed] and remained as principal conductor through 2016.[3][4][5][6]
Kamensek made her English National Opera (ENO) conducting debut in March 2016 with Philip Glass's Akhnaten.[7][8][9] Kamensek has frequently collaborated with Glass[10] and conducted the 2005 Orange Mountain Music recording of the composer's Les Enfants Terribles.[11] In 2017, Kamensek gave her debut concert at The Proms, with Britten Sinfonia, conducting the first full live performance of Philip Glass's and Ravi Shankar's Passages, with Shankar's daughter Anoushka Shankar as soloist.[12] She returned to ENO for their 2018 revival of Glass' Satyagraha.[13]
In November 2019, Kamensek made her Metropolitan Opera conducting debut with Akhnaten.[14] On 23 November 2019, Kamensek conducted the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD performance and cinema transmission of Akhnaten,[1] the second female conductor ever to be featured in the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series. The recording of Akhnaten subsequently won a 2022 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
References
edit- ^ a b Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development (March 25, 2020). "Karen Kamensek: March Entrepreneur of the Month". Indiana University Bloomington, JSoM: Entrepreneurship & Career Development - Resources to Take Charge of Your Future. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ^ Neumann, Carolin (2 February 2011). "Karen Kamensek, Dirigentin: "Eine Frauenquote in der Musik? Unmöglich!"". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 16 December 2015. (in German)
- ^ Peters, Von Helmut (January 5, 2009). "Die Frau an ihrer Seite" (in German). Die Welt. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
- ^ "Karrieresprung: Karen Kamensek geht nach Hannover" (in German). Hamburger Abendblatt. March 2, 2010. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
- ^ Arndt, Stefan (March 19, 2014). "Kamensek verlässt Hannover" [Kamensek leaves Hanover]. Hannoversche Allgemeine (in German). Archived from the original on March 22, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
- ^ Brown, Emily Freeman (2015). "Kamensek, Karen". A Dictionary for the Modern Conductor, p. 175. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810884011
- ^ Alexandra Coghlan (March 5, 2016). "Akhnaten, English National Opera". The Arts Desk. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ^ Andrew Clements (March 6, 2016). "Akhnaten review – a gloriously coloured eye-catching affair". The Guardian. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ^ George Hall (March 2016). "Akhnaten, London, English National Opera, 3/4/16". Opera News. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ^ Anna Kisselgoff (November 22, 1996). "A Fusion Inspired By Cocteau". The New York Times. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
- ^ Løkkegaard, Anne Marie (13 February 2007). "En kvinde med taktstokken". Berlingske. Retrieved 16 December 2015. (in Danish)
- ^ Frances Wilson (August 16, 2017). "Prom 41: East meets West in Glass/Shankar Passages". Bachtrack. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ^ Erica Jeal (February 7, 2018). "Satyagraha review – a masterclass in suggestion and imagination". The Guardian. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ^ Anthony Tommasini (November 10, 2019). "Review: 'Akhnaten' Puts You on Philip Glass Time". The New York Times. Retrieved July 7, 2020.