Canadian Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn 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, the Metropolitan Opera, the Berlin Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper, and Santa Fe Opera. Orchestras she has conducted recently include the New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the MDR Symphonie-Orchestre and the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz. She is the founder and music director of the highly regarded Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, which formed in response to the Russian invasion, and has toured major cities and festivals in Europe and the United States over the past four summers. In 2024, Maestro Wilson was appointed music director of the Kyiv Camerata, Ukraine’s leading chamber orchestra. Maestro Wilson leads the Kyiv Camerata in concerts both inside and outside of Ukraine.
Canadian Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn 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, the Metropolitan Opera, the Berlin Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper, and Santa Fe Opera. Orchestras she has conducted recently include the New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the MDR Symphonie-Orchestre and the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz. She is the founder and music director of the highly regarded Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, which formed in response to the Russian invasion, and has toured major cities and festivals in Europe and the United States over the past four summers. In 2024, Maestro Wilson was appointed music director of the Kyiv Camerata, Ukraine’s leading chamber orchestra. Maestro Wilson leads the Kyiv Camerata in concerts both inside and outside of Ukraine.
Among Maestro Wilson’s notable achievements is the creation of a new performance version of the “Ode to Joy” in Ukrainian for the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s Beethoven Ninth Freedom Tour, performed during the 2023 and 2024 tours. In this version, “Joy” is changed to “Slava,” the Ukrainian word for “Glory,” the rallying cry for Ukrainian victory. Maestro Wilson also 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.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra has released two live recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, including Maestro Wilson’s version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (released in 2024), and Beethoven’s Fifth accompanied by the premiere of a powerful new work by Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets: Suite from The Mothers of Kherson (released in 2026). A third recording, of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, follows in the fall/winter of 2026, and includes Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak’s Gloria, dedicated to the memory of slain Ukrainian soldiers. Maestro Wilson has conducted on several other recordings, including the 2026 release of the Penderecki Piano Concerto ‘Resurrection’, featuring the Lithuanian National Symphony with pianist Muza Rubackyte.
As a staunch supporter of Ukrainian liberty, a highlight of Maestro Wilson’s 2026/27 season is the world premiere of Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets’ The Mother of Kherson, about the brave Ukrainian mothers who attempt to rescue their kidnapped children, in Warsaw in October at Opera Narodowa. She will also lead the North American premiere of the work at the Metropolitan Opera in 2028. In addition to the world premiere of The Mother of Kherson, Maestro Wilson’s 2026/27 season includes return engagements with the Metropolitan Opera to conduct a new production of La Fanciulla del West and the Berlin Staatsoper for Les contes d’Hoffmann and The Tsar’s Bride. She also conducts Carmen at the Hamburg Opera and an orchestral program with the Orchestra Metropolitain in Montreal. Maestro Wilson’s other activities in support of Ukraine this season include conducting numerous concerts with the Kyiv Camerata, guest conducting the Kyiv Philharmonic and the Lviv Philharmonic, and leading the sixth international tour of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra in the summer of 2027.
Over a rich and varied career, Maestro Wilson has conducted, amongst many other orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, 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, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est, Orchestre national Bordeaux Aquitaine, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, Toronto Symphony and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
Maestro 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, Turandot at the Staatsoper Berlin, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, The Queen of Spades 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, Elektra and Salome 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 Aïda 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 Aïda.
Maestro 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 masters both in flute and conducting, she was named the Associate Conductor at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
On August 24th, 2024, Ukrainian Independence Day, Maestro Wilson was awarded the Order of Princess Olga by President Zelensky for her contributions to Ukrainian culture.
She can be found on social media under @kerilynnwilsonmaestro on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and X.
