Anu Tali

Conductor

Home
Reviews
Features
Discography

One of the most intriguing conductors on the scene today, Anu Tali belongs to a new generation of artists who are searching for fresh musical ideas in the classical music world.

Music Director: Nordic Symphony Orchestra

Described by the Herald Tribune as “charismatic, brilliant, energetic”, Anu Tali is one of the most captivating and versatile conductors on the international scene today, an artist whose pursuit of fresh and ingenious artistic creativity is acclaimed worldwide by critics and public alike.

Highlights of the 2022/23 season include a new production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, appearances with Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Duisburger Philharmoniker, Orchestre National d’île de France and a return to Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Former Music Director of Sarasota Orchestra in Florida, Anu Tali appears regularly with orchestras worldwide including New Japan and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestras, Orchestre National de France, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In Germany, she has worked with Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Ensemble Modern.

In opera, Tali has had major success with the production of Carmen at Magdeburg State Opera and was invited to conduct the Freiburger Barockorchester in a production of Gluck’s Telemaco at the Schwetzingen Festival and Theater Basel. Another notable highlight includes acclaimed semi-staged performances of Goebbels’ Songs of Wars I Have Seen with ensembles including London Sinfonietta at New York’s Lincoln Center, London’s Southbank Centre and in Saint Paul/Minnesota, Seattle and Barcelona. In 2021, she made history as the first woman to conduct an opera at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, in the Calixto Bieito production of Carmen.

Together with her twin sister Kadri, Anu Tali founded Nordic Symphony Orchestra in 1997, with the aim of utilising music as a tool to develop cultural contacts between Estonia and Finland, and to unite musicians from around the world. Today Nordic Symphony Orchestra brings together musicians from the world’s leading orchestras, with members from fifteen countries. In autumn 2007 the orchestra undertook its first European tour to Berlin and Munich.

Her debut recording, Swan Flight, (Finlandia/Warner Classics) earned Tali the 2003 ECHO Klassik Young Artist of the Year Award. Other recordings include Action Passion Illusion for Warner Classics, featuring works by Rachmaninov, Sibelius and Erkki-Sven Tüür. Her album of Tüür’s Strata and Noēsis, released on ECM, was also met with significant critical acclaim.

Anu Tali has been the subject of numerous documentaries by international broadcasters such as ARTE, NHK Japan, YLE Finland and Deutsche Welle. She began her musical career as a pianist, graduating from the Tallinn Conservatory before training as conductor at the Estonian Academy of Music with Kuno Areng, Toomas Kapten and Roman Matsow. From 1998 to 2000 she studied at the St Petersburg State Conservatory with Ilya Musin and later with Leonid Kortchmar and Jorma Panula.

HarrisonParrott represents Anu Tali for worldwide general management.

“Tali and the 27-year-old Czech pianist, Lukáš Vondráček, collaborated on a brilliant reading of Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” bringing out inner voices and colors that made this work seem reborn. There were ripples of humor, stretches of passion and intense musicality that delineated the kind of music-making generally relegated to the best of chamber performances.”

(Herald-Tribune (Sarasota), November 2013)

“They were led by the brilliant young Estonian conductor Anu Tali […] Ms. Tali conducted grippingly.”

(The New York Times, March 2011)

“The performances are outstanding: Anu Tali already has a very high reputation, and this beautifully recorded and produced disc is without doubt another jewel in her crown.”

(Ivan Moody, International Record Review, January 2011)