Falletta & Mendelssohn's “Italian”

Multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta is Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Music Director Laureate of the Virginia Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Omaha Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center, and Conductor Laureate of the Hawaii Symphony. She is recognized by Gramophone Magazine as one of the “Fifty Great Conductors” of all time, and by ASCAP as “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. She has overseen one of the orchestra’s most productive recording and touring eras, bringing the Philharmonic to an unprecedented level of national and international prominence. The Buffalo Philharmonic has released more than thirty-five recordings on the Naxos label and an extensive catalog on its own Beau Fleuve label. The BPO is ranked as one of the top five orchestras of CD releases on international labels. JoAnn Falletta has led the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on major international and US tours, highlighted by their historic 2018 tour to Poland, where the BPO became the first American orchestra to perform at the prestigious Beethoven Festival in Warsaw, as well as six concert…

Serena Reuten is a German-Canadian conductor currently serving as the Associate Conductor of the Omaha Symphony. Over the last year she has led over 50 performances for over 15,000 students and audience members across a range of repertoire, including Masterworks, Community, Family, and education concerts such as Carnegie Hall’s Link Up series. Between 2024-2026 she also joins the third cohort of the Orchestre Métropolitain’s Orchestral Conducting Academy mentorship program under the guidance of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In 2025, she was selected to join the next cohort of Women in Musical Leadership through Tapestry Opera. Recent activities include participating in the 2025 Fiskars Conducting Academy lead by the LEAD! Foundation in Finland, 2025 Tanglewood Conducting Seminar, and the 2024 Järvi Conducting Academy in Pärnu, Estonia. She has served as guest assistant conductor for the Toronto Symphony and National Arts Centre Orchestra, as well as guest conductor with the Winnipeg Symphony during their annual Winnipeg New Music Festival. In 2023, she was the inaugural recipient of the Bernhard Gueller Conducting Fellowship with Symphony Nova Scotia as well as one of CBC’s 30 under 30 Classical Musicians. Over the past few summers she has also attended several international conducting masterclasses, studying under such conductors as Alexander…