JoAnn Falletta: A Life in Harmony
Join us for an inspiring evening with JoAnn Falletta, Grammy-winning conductor and esteemed Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. A trailblazer in the world of classical music, Falletta will share how her Italian heritage has shaped her passion for music, drawing from the rich traditions of Italian artistry, culture, and storytelling. From her early days as a guitarist to becoming one of the most celebrated conductors of our time, she will explore the influences that have guided her remarkable journey.
JoAnn Falletta’s Bio:
Conductor
Multiple Grammy Award-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta serves as Music Director of the Buffalo
Philharmonic, the Connie and Marc Jacobson Music Director Laureate of the Virginia Symphony,
Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center, and Conductor Emeritus of the Hawaii
Symphony. Starting in the 2025-26 season, Falletta will also serve as Principal Guest Conductor and
Artistic Advisor to the Omaha Symphony.
She was recently named one of the “Fifty Great 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, and a leading force for music of our time.
As Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Falletta became the first woman to lead a major
American orchestra and has been credited with bringing the Philharmonic to an unprecedented level of
national and international prominence. The Buffalo Philharmonic has become one of the leading
recording orchestras for Naxos, with two Grammy Award-winning recordings and a 2024 Best Orchestral
Performance Grammy nomination for Alexander Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy and Symphony No.2 (Naxos).
In 2025, JoAnn and the BPO were nominated for two Grammy Awards, Best Orchestral Performance for
music of Kodaly and Best Classical Compendium for music of Lukas Foss.
Falletta has conducted many of the world’s finest orchestras, including over a hundred orchestras in
North America across 46 states. Internationally, Falletta has conducted many of the most prominent
orchestras in Europe, Asia, and South America, including recent and upcoming concerts in France,
England, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, Croatia and Mexico. Her vast repertoire includes nearly 1700
works by more than 600 composers including well over 100 world premieres.
With a discography of over 135 titles, Falletta is a leading recording artist for Naxos. She has won two
individual Grammy Awards, including the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance as
conductor of the world premiere Naxos recording, Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua. In 2019,
she won her first individual Grammy Award as conductor of the London Symphony in the Best Classical
Compendium category for Spiritualist by Kenneth Fuchs. Her Naxos recording of John Corigliano’s Mr.
Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan received two Grammys in 2008. Her 2020 Naxos recording
of orchestral music of Florent Schmitt with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra received the prestigious
Diapason d’Or Award.
Her upcoming releases for Naxos with the BPO include The French in Spain (Ravel, Ibert and
Debussy), Stravinsky Fairy Tales and Symphonic Dances (Bartok, Copland and Hindemith). In
early 2024, Naxos released the BPO’s recordings of orchestral works of Kodály and Scriabin
and an album of concertos by award-winning American composers, Danny Elfman and
Adolphus Hailstork, as well as a recording of works by Copland, Creston, Kay and Piston with
the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic. Her most recent Naxos recordings are an album
of the music of Danny Elfman with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on Sony and The Golden
Age of the Horn with the BPO.
Falletta is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has served by Presidential
appointment as a Member of the National Council on the Arts during the Bush and Obama
administrations, and is the recipient of many of the most prestigious conducting awards.
After earning her bachelor’s degree at Mannes, Falletta received master’s and doctoral degrees from
The Juilliard School.
For more information, visit www.joannfalletta.com.