Anna Handler

Anna Handler is a German-Colombian conductor and pianist who was raised in Munich. She is a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2023/2024 season.

Handler graduated from the Juilliard School in May 2023 where she received mentorship from David Robertson and was the proud recipient of the Juilliard Kovner Fellowship for outstanding students of classical music, which she was the first conductor ever to receive.

Following her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2022 as musical director of the Káťa Kabanová opera camp, Handler was immediately re-engaged to conduct new productions of L'enfant et les sortilèges (2023) and Die Kluge (2024). Further 2023/2024 highlights include her debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and North Carolina Symphony; BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Grazer Philharmoniker and Münchner Rundfunkorchester. The 2022/2023 season saw her debut with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein, OFUNAM Orchestra in Mexico, and Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin.

Handler has assisted distinguished conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, including conducting the banda for the concert opera production Mazeppa with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Daniel Harding (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk); Barbara Hannigan (London Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker); as well as Manfred Honeck and Simone Young. At the Bayerische Staatsoper, she assisted Oksana Lyniv and took over musical direction of the production Eve and Adam, premiered as part of the 2019 Munich Opera Festival.

As founder and director of the ensemble Enigma Classica, Handler has collaborated with notable soloists including Arabella Steinbacher, Daniel Müller-Schott and Sabine Meyer. Together with her team at Enigma Classica, Handler presented an interdisciplinary project on music education, featuring real-time generative video animation at the Young Artist Festival Bayreuth in August 2022. She was awarded the Maria Ladenburger Förderpreis in cooperation with WDR, the Cusanuswerk Foundation and Deutsche Grammophon. She has also received the Rising Star Award from the European Cultural Foundation Europamusicale.

Handler studied piano and conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, the Accademia Pianistica di Imola, the Folkwang University of the Arts and the Hochschule für Musik „Franz Liszt“ Weimar. Her mentors include Ingrid Fliter, Pavel Gililov and Henri Sigfridsson, Ekhart Wycik, Johannes Schlaefli and Piero Lombardi Iglesias. Conducting from the piano as well as performing chamber music with violinist Laura Handler is an important part of her musical identity.