Lidiya Yankovskaya
conductor, pianist, mezzo-soprano
As a conductor, Lidiya Yankovskaya's experience includes work with opera companies, symphonic orchestras, chamber ensembles, and choruses. Currently, Lidiya is the Associate Conductor of Juventas New Music Ensemble, Assistant Conductor for the Zamir Chorale of Boston, and a staff conductor of the Boston Opera Collaborative. This season, Lidiya will serve as Music Director for a production of Avrom Goldfaden's Shulamis at Harvard University, Music Director of Boston Opera Collaborative's spring Opera Gems performance, and Assistant Music Director of Opera Hub's spring production of Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg.
Until 2008, Lidiya was the Music Director of the Vassar College Mahagonny Ensemble, an instrumental and choral ensemble (about 55 instrumentalists and 24 singers) focusing on repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2008, she also served as the Music Director for a production of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along with the Vassar College Department of Drama. Other recent appearances include serving as conductor for a performance of Mozart's Zauberflöte at Brandeis University and music directing the premiere of the opera Victory Over the Sun by Russian avant-garde composer Georgy Firtich. Lidiya has also served as a Russian diction coach for Opera Boston and is currently a pianist for Opera Boston's education tour.
A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Lidiya Yankovskaya began her studies on piano at the Russian Specialized Music Schools and as a singer in the St. Petersburg Children's Choir at age five. Soon thereafter, she also began playing the violin. Lidiya first performed as a conductor at age seventeen, when she lead her high school orchestra in the first movement of Dvorak's Symphony no. 7. Lidiya's conducting teachers and mentors have included Ann Howard Jones, David Hoose, Josh Jacobson, Eduardo Navega, Christine Howlett, Tamara Brooks, Ken Kiesler (Conductors Retreat Medomak), Simon Carrington (Norfolk Music Festival), Harold Farberman (Conductors Institute at Bard) and Mark Shapiro (EAMA at L'École Normale de Musique in Paris).
Lidiya received her B.A. in Music, Phi Beta Kappa with Departmental Honors, focusing on piano, voice and conducting from Vassar College, where she also studied Philosophy and languages. Upon graduation, she also received the Francis Walker Prize as the top pianist in her graduating class. Currently, Lidiya is pursuing a degree in conducting on a Dean's Scholarship at Boston University under the tutelage of Dr. Ann Howard Jones. In addition to her work at BU, Lidiya is studying voice with Sharon Daniels of the Boston Opera Institute, studying piano with Helena Vesterman, and singing with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (the choir of the Boston Symphony Orchestra).