Anna Handler
About this Artist
The German-Colombian conductor and pianist Anna Handler has been performing on stages and in concert halls around the world since her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2022.
In November 2025, she was appointed Chief Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, a position she will begin in the 2026/27 season. Since the 2025/26 season, she has served as Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she was invited to conduct 11 opera performances in her first season. She was a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 2023/24 season. Following her debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall, she was invited to conduct the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl in July 2025. Last summer Handler also made her highly successful debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival. She had been appointed Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra by Andris Nelsons for a two-year term beginning with the 2024/25 season and concluding in the summer of 2026, marking another important milestone in her career.
The 2025/26 season sees her subscription debuts with both the LA Phil at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Boston Symphony at Symphony Hall in Boston. Other notable engagements include appearances with the Dresden Philharmonic and the New Year’s concert of the Royal Swedish Opera, as well as a concert at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg in April 2026 with tenor Jonathan Tetelman. She previously conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Brass at the Dresden Music Festival.
Handler’s close relationship with the Salzburg Festival began in 2022 with her debut as Music Director of Kát’a Kabanová for the renowned Opera Camp series, followed by Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges in 2023 and Carl Orff’s Die Kluge in 2024. Further highlights include debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, and Frankfurt Radio Symphony, as well as collaborations with Barbara Hannigan, Okka von der Damerau, Sabine Meyer, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Handler grew up in Munich and studied piano and conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich before continuing her studies at the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar, the Accademia Pianistica of the Fondazione Accademia Internazionale di Imola, and the Folkwang University of the Arts. She completed her Master’s degree in conducting at The Juilliard School in New York in 2023. At Juilliard, she was the first conductor ever to receive the prestigious Kovner Fellowship.
As director of the Ensemble Enigma Classica, which she founded in 2019, Handler works with renowned soloists. She is particularly interested in technology-supported music mediation in real time. Conducting from the piano and chamber music collaborations with violinist Laura Handler are an important part of her musical identity.
Handler received the Rising Star Award from the European Cultural Foundation Europamusicale and is a scholarship holder of the German Foundation for Musical Life. She was also awarded the Maria Ladenburger Prize for Music in cooperation with WDR, the Cusanuswerk Foundation, and Deutsche Grammophon.