Lina González-Granados Makes Her Triumphant Return to Seattle Symphony
The former Seattle Symphony Conducting Fellow leads an exciting Masterworks program featuring pianist Michelle Cann January 5, 7 & 8, 2023. Photo courtesy of the artist.
By Leilani Polk
Lina González-Granados started her conducting fellowship at the Seattle Symphony in a season interrupted by a pandemic. Despite her last performance for a live audience being in February 2020, she continued her work with the Symphony through May 2021 and even conducted a few concerts streamed on Seattle Symphony Live. She was holding other conducting roles as well — a fellowship at Philadelphia Orchestra, and a Solti apprenticeship for Chicago Symphony Orchestra (through June 2023).
Since finishing her fellowship here, she’s been juggling an avalanche of freelance conducting jobs that had her flying to Europe five times in 2021 alone. She’s had memorable debuts with New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony, among others, and a one-production conducting gig with LA Opera, opening the season with Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, became a full-time position when she was appointed Resident Conductor through June 2025. She’s the first Latin American woman to hold that title at a major U.S. opera company — the fourth largest in the U.S.
Lina’s 2022/2023 season brings her back to Seattle to conduct a program (January 5, 7 & 8, 2023; click HERE for the program notes) that includes Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 with Michelle Cann, as well as Lumina, a contemporary piece exploring light and its absence by Nina Shekhar that’s been traveling with González-Granados throughout the season; she’s already received critical acclaim for its performance during her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
She’s looking forward to presenting an extraordinary program and working with Cann, “a fantastic pianist.” But she’s most excited about coming back to Seattle — “It was the first official orchestra that gave me an opportunity” — and joining the Symphony musicians in a new, exciting context: “I am very interested to dig deeper, not only into the music, but for them to get to know me on a different level. I hope the story we have to tell is a story of rediscovery. I adored the [Seattle] Symphony; for me, it’s like coming back to a family.”
Michelle Cann’s performances are generously sponsored by Betty Graham.