Anna Rakitina
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has appointed Russian-born Anna Rakitina (*1989) as the orchestra’s new Assistant conductor beginning with the 2019–20 season for a two-year term. She succeeds Associate Conductor Ken-David Masur who leaves the BSO to assume his new position as music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, effective this fall.
In addition to her upcoming responsibilities with the BSO, Rakitina will be a 2019–20 Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (soon to be officially announced). Under the supervision of the orchestra’s music director, Gustavo Dudamel, she will conduct Los Angeles Philharmonic youth concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall and develop her craft though involvement in the LA Phil’s orchestral, educational, and community programs such as Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA).
Recent second-prize winner at the Malko Conducting Competition in Denmark, Anna Rakitina has degrees from the Moscow Conservatory in both musicology and conducting, with a graduate diploma in conducting from the Hochschule Hamburg, received in 2018. She won third prize in both the Taipei and Deutscher Dirigentenpreis (Cologne) competitions.
