Announcing the Taki Fellows for 2017-2019

The Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship for women conductors is very pleased to announce the selection of Lina Gonzalez Granados as the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellow for the 2017-2019 seasons.  The Fellowship is also pleased to announce that Marta Gardolinska has been chosen as an Associate Fellow. The Taki Fellowship also awards Barbara Dragan an Honorable Mention. Please join us in congratulating and welcoming our new Fellows!
Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Fellow

Lina Gonzalez Granados

Praised for her “geniality” and ability to create “lightning changes in tempo, meter and effect” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Lina Gonzalez-Granados has firmly established herself locally and abroad as a diverse and talented conductor. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Unitas Ensemble, a dynamic chamber orchestra specializing in Latin-American repertoire, work which earned her recognition as one of the “Latino 30 Under 30” by El Mundo Newspaper in 2016. She recently recorded Unitas Ensemble’s debut album “The Seasons” alongside the Latin Grammy-winning Cuarteto Latinoamericano, to be released in late 2017.
Born and raised in Cali, Colombia, Gonzalez-Granados made her conducting debut in 2008 with the Youth Orchestra of Bellas Artes in Cali. In 2010, she became Assistant Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, which included several tours to Mexico and the release of their debut recording “Mi Alma Mexicana.” She also served as Assistant conductor and faculty of the Filarmonica Joven de Colombia for their summer tour, “La Consagracion,” in 2015. Other venues include Jordan Hall in Boston and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

Upcoming engagements include Assistant Conductor with Odyssey Opera, directing performances with Boston Conservatory’s Opera Program, and as Assistant Conductor to Maestra Marin Alsop touring with Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the U.S. in Summer 2017.

Summer and Masterclass programs have included the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music as a recipient of the Bruno Walter Scholarship with Marin Alsop and James Ross, as well as a masterclass this April at the Lucerne Festival with Bernard Haitink. She has also appeared in masterclasses with Kenneth Kiesler, Andrés Orozco Estrada, Alondra de la Parra, Frank Battisti, Roselin Pabon, among others.

Lina graduated with honors with her Master’s degree in Conducting from New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Charles Peltz in May 2014, and with a Graduate Diploma in Choral Conducting in May 2015 with Erica Washburn. Lina is currently pursuing her Doctoral degree in Orchestral conducting at Boston University with Stefan Asbury.
Marta Gardolinska, Associate Fellow
Marta Gardolińska received her education in some of the most prestigious institutions of Europe and the United States, including the Frédéric Chopin Music University in Warsaw, the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, the Cabrillo Music Festival and the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestral Musicians, in Maine, USA. Some of her mentors include Simone Young, Nicolas Pasquet, Mark Stringer, Yuji Yuhasa, Konrad Leitner, Peter Eötvös and Erwin Ortner.

Marta Gardolinska

Marta’s conducting activities have taken her to stages as diverse as the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Golden Hall of Wiener Musikverein, the Baltic Philharmonic Hall in Gdansk, Poland, the Festspielhaus Füssen and the Teatro Peón Contreras in Mérida, Mexico. She has also gained recognition in conducting competitions:  in November 2015 she was one of the 10 semi-finalists out of more than 130 participants of the first Antal Doráti International Conducting Competition in Budapest, Hungary. September 2016 brought her an Honourable Mention and the Special Orchestra Prize in the Witold Lutosławski Conducting Competition in Białystok in Poland and in November 2016 she won the 3rd Prize and the Special Orchestra Prize at the Felix Mendelssohn International Conducting Competition in Thessaloniki, Greece.
In 2016, Marta was awarded the title “Outstanding Pole in Austria” in the category “Culture” for her efforts in popularising Polish culture and music outside of the country.
Barbara Dragan, Honorable Mention

Barbara Dragan

Barbara Dragan recently graduated from the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland, where she studied orchestral and opera conducting. Barbara is an accomplished violinist and also performs on the oboe.  She has participated in numerous masterclasses with Jorma Panula and with her mentor, Colin Metters, at the Krzysztof Penderecki European Center for Music Luslawice, as well as in Vilnius, Zagreb, Cracow, Warsaw, and in the UK.  Barbara was born into a family of scientists and engineers and has herself pursued advanced studies in math and physics.

About the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship
Founding Director, Marin Alsop, established the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship

in 2002 with the mission to promote, present, and encourage talented women conductors at the beginning of their professional careers.

In 2011 the program was significantly expanded from a one year program to a two year program. Alsop commented that “it is privilege to be in a position to impact the lives of aspiring women conductors. Through the efforts of my conducting colleagues and the TCCF Advisory Board members, we have been able to greatly expand our program and offer far more learning opportunities for the Taki Fellowship recipients to work with celebrated Maestri and great orchestras.”

In 2017 the TCCF program was again expanded with the addition of Associate Fellows along with our TCCF Fellow. Associate Fellows benefit from all that the TCCF has to offer including mentoring, career support, and performance opportunities.
TCCF Alumnae
Present and past recipients of the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship include: Valentina Peleggi (Conductor in Residence, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra),  Marzena Diakun (CLB Management/Professor, Karol Lipinski Academy of Music), Ruth Reinhardt (Asst. Conductor, Dallas Symphony Orchestra), Karina Canellakis  (Opus 3/Askonas Holt), Alexandra Arrieche (Music Director, Henderson Symphony Orchestra), Carolyn Kuan (Music Director, Hartford Symphony Orchestra), Laura Jackson (Music Director, Reno Philharmonic), Jeri-Lynne Johnson (Music Director, Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra), Rei Hotoda (Assistant Conductor, Utah Symphony Orchestra), Mei-Ann Chen (Music Director, Chicago Sinfonietta), and Mihaela Cesa Goje (Romanian National Opera and Harmonia Cordis International Classical Guitar Festival).