Karen Kamensek (born January 2, 1970 in Chicago) is an American orchestral and opera conductor.

Biography

Her parents came from Kamnica pri Mariboru,

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. Kamensek received degrees in orchestral conducting and piano performance from Indiana University's

Jacobs School of Music The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom ar ...

. Kamensek has served as the 1st Kapellmeister of the

Volksoper Wien The Vienna Volksoper (''Volksoper'' or ''Vienna People's Opera'') is an opera house in Vienna, Austria. It produces three hundred performances of twenty-five German language productions of opera, operetta, musicals, and ballet, during an annual s ...

from 2000 to 2002. She was ''Generalmusikdirektorin'' (General Music Director) of the

Theater Freiburg Theater Freiburg is a theatre in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Freiburg Theatre, sometimes also referred to as Stadttheater Freiburg (Freiburg municipal theatre), formerly Städtische Bühnen (Municipal Stages) Freiburg, is the oldest and bigg ...

from 2003 to 2006, the first female conductor in the Freiburg past. 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 The Hamburg State Opera (in German: Staatsoper Hamburg) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''Genera ...

from 2008 to 2011. In 2011, she was named ''Generalmusikdirektorin'' and principal conductor of the

Staatsoper Hannover Hanover State Opera (german: Staatsoper Hannover) is an opera company in Hanover, the state capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. The company is resident in the Hanover Opera House (), and is part of a publicly-funded umbrella performing arts organ ...

, the first female conductor to hold the Hannover posts. She relinquished the GMD title in 2015 and remained as principal conductor through 2016. Kamensek made her

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

(ENO) conducting debut in March 2016 with

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

's '' Akhnaten''. Kamensek has frequently collaborated with Glass and conducted the 2005 Orange Mountain Music recording of the composer's '' Les Enfants Terribles''.Løkkegaard, Anne Marie (13 February 2007)
"En kvinde med taktstokken"
''

Berlingske ''Berlingske'', previously known as ''Berlingske Tidende'' (, ''Berling's Times''), is a Danish national daily newspaper based in Copenhagen. It is considered a newspaper of record for Denmark. First published on 3 January 1749, ''Berlingske'' ...

''. Retrieved 16 December 2015. In 2017, Kamensek gave her debut concert at

The Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

, with Britten Sinfonia, conducting the first full live performance of Philip Glass's and

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North Ind ...

's '' Passages'', with Shankar's daughter

Anoushka Shankar Anoushka Shankar (born 9 June 1981) is a British-American sitar player, producer, film composer and activist. She was the youngest and first woman to receive a British House of Commons Shield; she has had 7 Grammy Awards nominations and was the ...

as soloist. She returned to ENO for their 2018 revival of Glass' ''Satyagraha''. In November 2019, Kamensek made her

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

conducting debut with ''Akhnaten''. On 23 November 2019, Kamensek conducted the

Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Metropolitan Opera Live in HD (also known as The Met: Live in HD) is a series of live opera performances transmitted in high-definition video via satellite from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City to select venues, primarily movie theaters, ...

performance and cinema transmission of ''Akhnaten'', 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 The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for

Best Opera Recording The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by m ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kamensek, Karen Women conductors (music) Music directors (opera) Contemporary classical music performers Jacobs School of Music alumni 1970 births Living people 21st-century American conductors (music) 21st-century American women musicians Musicians from Chicago 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American women musicians Classical musicians from Illinois