On this episode of Mindful Music host Karl Shallowhorn is joined by JoAnn Falletta, Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. JoAnn shares two of the BPO's amazing performances as well as what is considered to be one of classical music's greatest symphonies of all time.
JoAnn has served as the musical director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, since her appointment in 1998. She also is the Connie and Marc Jacobson Music Director Laureate of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center and Artistic Adviser to the Hawaii Symphony. She was recently named one of the “Fifty Greatest Conductors,” past and present, by Gramophone Magazine, and is hailed for her work as a conductor, recording artist, audience builder, and champion of American composers.
Upon her appointment to the Buffalo Philharmonic, JoAnn became the first woman to lead a major American ensemble and has been credited with bringing the Philharmonic to an unprecedented level of national and international prominence. Under her leadership, the Buffalo Philharmonic has become one of the leading recording artists for Naxos.
She won a Grammy Award in 2019 for her work as a conductor in the category of Best Classical Compendium for the Naxos recording with the London Symphony Orchestra. She won her second individual Grammy Award in 2020 as conductor in the category of Best Choral Performance for the Naxos recording of "Richard Danielpour: Passion of Yeshua." Her recording with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra of John Corigliano’s "Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan" won two Grammy Awards in 2009.
JoAnn has won numerous other awards and in 2016, She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, the classical music radio program Performance Today named JoAnn its inaugural Classical Woman of the Year. She has a discography of over 100 titles and has conducted many of the world’s finest orchestras, including over 100 in North America, and throughout Europe, South America and Asia. ASCAP calls her “a leading voice for our time.” JoAnn's Musical Selections:
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis - Buffalo Philharmonic
Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto #5 (Emperor) second movement - Buffalo Philharmonic
Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 - otherwise known as the Jupiter Symphony.
Listen to JoAnn's Playlist: