JoAnn Falletta (born February 27, 1954, in Queens, New York City) is an American classical musician and orchestral conductor.
Falletta was educated at the Mannes College of Music and The Juilliard School in New York City. She began her musical career as a virtuoso guitar and mandolin player, and as a teenager often was called to perform with the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic when a work called for a mandolin or guitar obligato. She entered Mannes in 1971 as a guitar student, but began conducting the student orchestra in her freshman year, immediately precipitating her desire for a career as a conductor. While the Mannes administration at that time expressed doubts about the ability of any woman to gain a music directorship, it consented to an official transfer of emphasis for Falletta. After graduation, she pursued further study at Queens College (M.A. in orchestral conducting) and the Juilliard School of Music (M.M., D.M.A. in orchestral conducting). Falletta studied conducting with Jorge Mester, Semyon Bychkov, and others, including master classes under Leonard Bernstein.
In 1991, Falletta was appointed the eleventh music director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. In May 2011, she signed the most recent extension of her Virginia contract through the 2015-2016 season.[1] She has also served as music director of the Long Beach Symphony and of The Women's Philharmonic Orchestra (San Francisco).[2] In May 1998, Falletta was named music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and she formally took up the post with the 1999-2000 season. During her tenure in Buffalo, the orchestra has made recordings for Naxos and returned to Carnegie Hall after a twenty-year absence. Currently the longest-serving music director in the history of the orchestra, her present contract with the organization runs through the 2015-2016 season.[3]
Falletta has won a number of prestigious conducting awards, including the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award in 2002,[4] the Stokowski Competition, the Toscanini Award, Ditson Award and Bruno Walter Award for conducting. She has also has received ten awards from ASCAP for creative programming, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra League’s John S. Edwards Award. Falletta has championed the work of several contemporary American composers throughout her career, with an extensive repertoire of new works and dozens of world premieres to her credit.
Outside of the USA, Falletta first guest-conducted the Ulster Orchestra in August 2010, and returned for further concerts in January 2011. In May 2011, Falletta was named the 12th principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, effective with the 2011-2012 season, with an initial contract of 3 years.[5] She is the first American and the first female conductor to be appointed the orchestra's principal conductor.[6]
Falletta's discography now extends to more than forty releases for such labels as Naxos, featuring works of Classical composers including Brahms, Barber, and Schubert, and women composers such as Clara Schumann and Lili Boulanger, in addition to numerous contemporary compositions. In the 1987 documentary A Woman Is a Risky Bet: Six Orchestra Conductors, directed by Christina Olofson, JoAnn Falletta is seen conducting the Queens Philharmonic in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
Falletta married Robert Alemany, a semi-professional clarinetist in the New York area, in 1986. Mr. Alemany is a full-time systems engineer for AT&T.[7]
| Preceded by Winston Dan Vogel |
Music Director, Virginia Symphony Orchestra 1991–present |
Succeeded by incumbent |
| Preceded by Maximiano Valdes |
Music Director, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra 1999–present |
Succeeded by incumbent |