Anna Handler

The German-Colombian conductor and pianist Anna Handler has been performing on stages and in concert halls around the world since her debut at Salzburg Festival in 2022.

In December 2024, Handler was appointed Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a position she will begin in the 25/26 season, where she is scheduled to conduct eleven opera performances during her first season. She was previously a Dudamel Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 23/24 season and following her debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall, she was immediately invited to conduct the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2025. After winning the Assistant Conductor position of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, appointed by Andris Nelsons, she is set to debut at Tanglewood Music Festival with the orchestra in August 2025. In the 25/26 season, she will make her subscription debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in Boston.

Following her successful debut at the 2022 Salzburg Festival as Music Director of the Kát'a Kabanová for the renowned Opera Camp series, Handler has returned to the Salzburg Festival to conduct Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges in the 2023 season and Carl Orff's Die Kluge in the summer of 2024.

Handler’s debuts with internationally renowned orchestras such as the LA Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony mark further highlights of her career to date. She has worked with soloists including Barbara Hannigan, Okka von der Damerau, Sabine Meyer, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Previously, Handler worked as an assistant with renowned conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, including conducting the incidental music from Mazeppa with the Berlin Philharmonic in Baden-Baden. At the Bayerische Staatsoper, she took over the musical direction of the production Eva und Adam, which premiered at the 2019 Munich Opera Festival. The production uses music from Haydn’s Die Schöpfung and was performed by young people from around Munich who came to Germany as refugees.

Handler grew up in Munich and initially studied piano and conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich before continuing her studies at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar, the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale di Imola and the Folkwang University of the Arts. She completed her master's degree in conducting at the Juilliard School in New York in May 2023. At Juilliard, she was the first conductor ever to receive the prestigious Kovner Fellowship.

As director of the Ensemble Enigma Classica, which she founded in 2019, Handler works with renowned soloists. She is particularly interested in technology-supported music mediation in real time. Conducting from the piano and chamber music collaborations with violinist Laura Handler are an important part of her musical identity.

Handler received the Rising Star Award from the European Cultural Foundation Europamusicale and is a scholarship holder of the German Foundation for Musical Life. She was also awarded the Maria Ladenburger Prize for Music in cooperation with WDR, the Cusanuswerk Foundation and Deutsche Grammophon.