Full Biography
Keri-Lynn Wilson is the founder and Music Director of the highly regarded Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, formed in response to the Russian invasion and which has toured major cities and festivals in Europe and the United States over the past three summers. As a staunch supporter of Ukrainian liberty, Ms. Wilson performed the Verdi Requiem at the Lviv Opera House in February 2023 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the invasion and she has returned to Ukraine on numerous occasions since then to lead performances in solidarity.
Ms. Wilson created a new performance version of the Ode to Joy in Ukrainian for the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s Beethoven Ninth Freedom Tour last summer. In this version, “Joy” is changed to “Slava,” the Ukrainian word for “Glory,” the rallying cry for Ukrainian victory. The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s recording of the Beethoven 9th Symphony was released by Deutsche Grammophon to commemorate the second anniversary of the invasion.
Most recently, Ms. Wilson was appointed Music Director of the Kyiv Camerata, Ukraine’s leading chamber orchestra. Ms. Wilson will be leading the Kyiv Camerata in concerts both inside and outside of Ukraine in the 2024/25 season.
Ms. Wilson’s career as a conductor of opera and symphonic music includes many of the world’s leading opera houses and symphony orchestras. Among the opera companies she has conducted in recent seasons are the Royal Opera House, Paris Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. Orchestras she has conducted recently include the NHK Symphony, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz.
Highlights of Ms. Wilson’s 2024/25 season include her debut at the Staatsoper Berlin, conducting Turandot, as well as return engagements with the Canadian Opera Company to conduct Madama Butterfly, the Deutsche Oper Berlin to conduct Salome, and the Metropolitan Opera to conduct Pique Dame. She makes her debut with the New York Philharmonic in December, conducting Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony. Ms. Wilson will also be conducting a Puccini Gala concert tour of Spanish opera houses with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and tenor Piotr Beczala at Grand Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Teatro de la Maestranza, Teatro Real de Madrid and Les Arts Valencia. This season, she also conducts the Orquestra del Teatro Colon in a performance of the Beethoven 9th Symphony, as well as concert programs with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra as a part of the concert series Latino Mozart in Salzburg, the Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est, and the MDR-Sinfonieorchester.
Over a rich and varied career, Ms. Wilson has conducted, amongst many other orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Wiener Kammerorchester, the Hessische Staatsorchester Wiesbaden, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma, the Wrocław Philharmonic, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, the Prague Philharmonia, the RAI Symphony Orchestra, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Orchestre national d’Ile de France, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orchestre national Bordeaux Aquitaine, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, Toronto Symphony and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
Ms. Wilson’s career operatic highlights include Carmen, La Bohème and La Traviata at the Royal Ballet and Opera House Covent Garden; Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and La Traviata at the Wiener Staatsoper, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Metropolitan Opera, Salome at Houston Grand Opera La Traviata, Madama Butterfly and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Stolen Happiness at the Lviv National Opera, Madama Butterfly at the Deutsche Oper, Cendrillon at Opéra national de Paris, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and La Traviata at the Opernhaus Zürich, Don Carlo, Iolanta, Manon Lescaut, Carmen, Tosca, La Fanciulla del West, Jenufa and Aida at the English National Opera, Rusalka at the Czech National Opera, Rigoletto at the Norwegian National Opera, Der Fliegende Holländer, Carmina Burana, Boris Godunov, and Carmen at the Polish National Opera, Faust at the Washington National Opera, Pique Dame and Tosca at the Latvian National Opera and Madama Butterfly at the Canadian Opera Company. She was the first female conductor to lead an opera at: the Arena di Verona, where she conducted Tosca and Madama Butterfly; the New National Theatre (NNT) Tokyo, where she led Madama Butterfly; and the Opera di Roma, where she conducted Aida.
Of partial Ukrainian descent, Ms. Wilson was raised in Winnipeg, Canada, home of North America’s most concentrated Ukrainian population, where she studied flute, piano, and violin from an early age. While still a student at Juilliard, she assisted Claudio Abbado at the Salzburg Festival, and won a fellowship from the Tanglewood Music Center. Upon graduating from Juilliard with a master’s both in flute and conducting, she was named the Associate Conductor at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
On August 24th Ukrainian Independence Day, Ms. Wilson was awarded the Order of Princess Olga by President Zelensky for her contributions to Ukrainian culture.
© CSAM GmbH, August 2024
