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March 21, 2023

Metro Philadelphia

Philly conductor Lina Gonzalez-Granados wields her baton for Latina empowerment

Before Saturday’s showcase— which will take place at Verizon Hall on the Kimmel Cultural Campus—Lina Gonzalez-Granados talked about how it is she came to the conductor’s baton, to Philadelphia, and to her leadership role.

"The program is unique in the way it is devised. The book is one that kids from the Kauffman Center wrote, and the aesthetic idea comes from the need to reframe this story as they feel fit. Kids of this age being responsible for that goal – there is pride in that, and beauty. The Philadelphia Orchestra are helpers in that. My role here is to curate, to create a libretto based on their book and their experiences writing, to put them at the center of the story. They love how people are rediscovering Price and other Black women composers. This is a story from the kids for the kids. African-American music is American music – that is important to know."
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February 20, 2023

KCET

Lina González-Granados on Becoming L.A. Opera’s New Resident Conductor

Last September, Colombia-born Lina González-Granados was appointed the new resident conductor of the L.A. Opera, a post she'll hold through June 2025. The internationally recognized conductor is dedicated to highlighting new and unknown works by Latin-American composers. Learn how González-Granados fell in love with music and overcomes challenges in a historically male-dominated industry.

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Acclaim
February 6, 2023

Bachtrack

Faith and fortune: Opera Philadelphia presents Credo and Carmina Burana

Audiences in Philadelphia had the opportunity to rediscover the works of two Black composers from the mid-20th century last week. A day after the Philadelphia Orchestra returned William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony to its repertory, Opera Philadelphia introduced Credo by Margaret Bonds, a cantata setting of a text by W E B Du Bois that celebrates the beauty and resilience of Black American life.

"In her Opera Philadelphia debut, conductor Lina González-Granados brought out a sweeping grandeur in the orchestra when necessary, but her approach was most notable for threading a seamless narrative needle across the cantata’s seven movements."
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Acclaim
February 4, 2023

The Philadelphia Inquirer

An odd couple: Opera Philadelphia’s ‘Carmina Burana’ and ‘Credo’ by Margaret Bonds

The concert echoed W.E.B. Du Bois' message in musical form... Choruses, orchestra and vocal soloists presented the odd pairing of Orff’s Carmina Burana, famous for its screaming sound, and Margaret Bond’s Credo, quiet by comparison and hardly known at all.

"She has clear technique and a way with phrase-shaping that tells a compelling story — qualities that make a good case for her return in other repertoire."
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February 3, 2023

AL DÍA

Latina conductor Lina González-Granados is set to make her Opera Philadelphia debut

Lina González-Granados spoke with AL DÍA to discuss her journey and just what her impending debut means to her as one of the very few Latinas in this industry.

“It’s always very profound and philosophical when you conduct, but for me, when you can be more in contact with the community, those are the moments that I feel that my job is doing something.”
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January 25, 2023

I CARE IF YOU LISTEN

Opera Philadelphia Presents “CREDO,” Embracing Composer Margaret Bonds’ Artistic Ideals

"I think we have the privilege to actually be an active part of creating that tradition, instead of following somebody else’s interpretation. The text is beautifully adapted, and I have the only – and to be honest the most important – tool I need, which is the score. As long as we are honoring Margaret Bonds’ intentions and creative instincts, that is the only thing I pay attention to."
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Acclaim
January 24, 2023

San Francisco Classical Voice

A Wrenching and Timely Rape of Lucretia From Los Angeles Opera

"Indeed, as presented by Los Angeles Opera, the urgency and in-your-face elements of an octet of singers and a 13-piece LAO ensemble, insightfully led by Resident Conductor Lina González-Granados, gave new meaning to the words intimacy, clarity, and beauty, all wrapped in a damning and brutal storyline."
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December 22, 2022

Bloomberg Línea

100 Influential Latinos

Lina Gonzalez-Granados joins Bloomberg Línea's list of "100 Influential Latinos" along with Anya Taylor-Joy, Rosario Dawson, Guillermo del Toro, and Sonia Sotomayor, among others.

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November 2, 2022

Los Angeles Times

Meet LA Vanguardia: The Latino innovators, instigators and power players breaking through barriers

Lina Gonzalez-Granados joined L.A. Opera as its new resident conductor in September, opening its season with a bold production of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” winning over audiences with a robust, fluid conducting style.

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October 7, 2022

Los Angeles Times

Meet Lina González-Granados, L.A. Opera’s new resident conductor

In a concert hall in downtown Los Angeles on a recent Saturday evening, classical music fans applauded a superstar Latin American conductor with pride and enthusiasm. It wasn’t L.A.’s familiar Venezuelan with tightly coiled salt and pepper curls onstage, but rather a newer face in town — a Colombian American with smooth, shiny brown hair slicked back into a bouncy ponytail.

"When González-Granados conducts, it’s as if the music is alive inside her body, flowing through her arms, dancing with all the right steps."
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September 29, 2022

NBC LA

LA Opera's First Latin Conductor

Lina Gonzalez-Granados is LA Opera’s first latina conductor. The Colombian born woman is the first latina to lead a major opera in the u.s. Angie Crouch reports for the NBC4 News on Sept. 29, 2022.

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Acclaim
September 27, 2022

Daily Trojan

González-Granados makes an electric debut

As Lina González-Granados made her way through the pit to the podium at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion last Saturday, the audience buzzed with an especially welcoming and animated applause. Appointed the Resident Conductor of the LA Opera last September, the evening was her debut appearance with the company, an opportunity to demonstrate the energy and presence she hopes to bring to the orchestra.

"Lucia di Lammermoor becomes indispensable, with tremendous modern-day relevance. González-Granados succeeds in leading a performance that expresses profound emotion, enhancing the cathartic effect of the opera."
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Acclaim
September 20, 2022

Seen and Heard International

Tragedy in a present-day American town: Lucia di Lammermoor at LA Opera

In this LA Opera co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, the seventeenth-century Scottish setting of Lucia di Lammermoor, which is based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel, has been replaced by a kaleidoscopic vision of a present-day, depressed town in America’s rust belt.

"The new resident conductor, Lina González-Granados, formerly assistant conductor to Riccardo Muti at the Chicago Symphony, was in the pit and the LAO Orchestra was in good hands. The music sparkled, the singers were perfectly supported, and the tragic underpinnings of the famous score bristled."
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Acclaim
September 19, 2022

Classical Voice

L.A. Opera’s 'Lucia', Brilliantly Retold as an American Tragedy

For the season opener Lucia di Lammermoor, director Simon Stone set the seventeenth-century Scottish period piece in a present-day American Midwestern town fallen on hard times with drug and economic issues.

"L.A. Opera’s new resident conductor Lina González-Granados (born in Colombia) proves Mr. Porter right, turning Donizetti’s orchestral accompaniment into something taut and thrilling"
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Acclaim
September 19, 2022

Parterre

No heather on the hill: ‘Lucia’ in LA

We had two very important debuts to look forward to in the form of our new resident conductor Lina Gonzalez-Granados and innovative stage director Simon Stone.

"Maestro Gonzalez-Granados not only led a fiercely exciting performance but managed to capture the dark sound in Donizetti’s orchestrations necessary to convey the growing sense of foreboding in the story. She never failed to provide sensitive and stylish accompaniment to her able cast, even offering beautiful rubato effects in some of those aforementioned repeats and strettas that highlighted both the singers and the music to their fullest."
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Acclaim
September 18, 2022

Los Angeles Times

Review: L.A. Opera reimagines a Donizetti heroine as victim of insurrectionist America

"González-Granados seems to have won over the orchestra, which played with suave beauty."
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August 12, 2022

LA Times

Review: Conductor Lina González-Granados makes a big splash in the big outdoors in her Bowl debut

González-Granados seemed right at home at the Bowl… a show of raw power, an aural force to glue you to your seat (or bench)…this “Scheherazade” came on strong and pretty much stayed that way.
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August 8, 2022

San Francisco Classical Voice

Lina González-Granados Steps Onto the Podium in Los Angeles

The 36-year-old maestra, who makes her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 11, has also racked up fistfuls of honors and rave reviews. OperaWire praised her “attention to orchestral colors,” while The Boston Musical Intelligencer commended her ability to create “lightning changes in tempo, meter, and effect.”

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July 1, 2022

Chicago Tribune

She stepped in with a minute’s notice to conduct the CSO and save a concert.

It’s the stuff of classical music legend.

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June 18, 2022

Chicago Sun-Times

Lina Gonzalez-Granados returns to CSO podium with top-notch Beethoven program

[González-Granados] emphasized the lyrical sweep of Beethoven’s music, integrating its shifting emotions into a cohesive whole... and the soaring, romantic melodies of Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 were an ideal showcase for Gonzalez-Granados’s ability to sculpt rich, heartfelt orchestral sound.

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June 18, 2022

Chicago WTTW

Saved by the Understudy: Lina Gonzalez-Granados Steps in for Maestro Muti

Now, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has its very own “last minute hero” story, too. Her name is Lina Gonzalez-Granados. And she was the winner of the fourth Chicago Symphony Orchestra Sir Georg Solti Conducting Competition. She served for a year as the Solti conducting apprentice under the guidance of maestro Riccardo Muti.

At once seductive and grandiose, Brahms drives this symphony to a heated finale, and the CSO musicians and Gonzalez-Granados (who was met with many rounds of enthusiastic applause), were with the composer every step of the way.
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June 17, 2022

Third Coast Review

Review: Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lina González-Granados Exhibit Brilliance With the CSO

With only a few hours notice, the Colombian-American conductor González-Granados clicked with the orchestra, as if she’d been performing with them for years. The CSO helped by bringing its best playing, which was evident from the quiet opening of Beethoven’s violin concerto. As the section chairs traded the melody, which built as instruments joined the conversation, the playing was crisp and tight—no ragged edges at all. While the tempo was a bit slower than I like, their warmth was soulfully infectious. González-Granados built this into a lovely aural fabric... González-Granados seized on the Brahms immediately by entering the stage and starting things with barely a pause. The orchestra continued its fabulous night from the opening notes. Especially effective was the clarity each section showed when in the limelight, and then blending into the sound when a different section came to the fore. González-Granados was very much a part of the action, her arms swaying to the sounds while engaging each section.
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May 27, 2022

Mundoclasico.com

Mason Bates or the accumulated surprise

The version was excellent: precise, passionate and with very clear ideas, carefully planned and executed. It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise that level of commitment in the first work of the program and, above all, the affinity of the director with this repertoire, which can provide stupendous interpretations.

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May 21, 2022

El Norte de Castilla

Colombian director Lina González-Granados demonstrated security and maturity in the overture 'La Fuerza del Destino'

The Colombian director Lina González-Granados showed confidence and maturity in the overture "The Force of Destiny", which opened the program. A very clear vision of this excellently made Verdi model.

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April 8, 2022

Chicago Sun-Times

González-Granados makes history with CSO

With Riccardo Muti forced to withdraw from this weekend’s series of concerts, Lina González-Granados became the first Latina to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

…(Lina Gonzalez Granados) delivered clean, efficient performances of both selections and demonstrated a feel for the theatrical flair that is essential to both. With expansive, fluid gestures, she found the fun and whimsy in the “Barber” overture and brought it to a suitably boisterous conclusion but seemed most at home in the “Don Giovanni”, giving shape to its out-sized emotions.
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February 28, 2022

Telemundo

A Latina will direct the Los Angeles Opera

Lina González-Granados emphasizes that music is the art that can do what cannot be done with words.

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February 23, 2022

Le Monde

In Paris, the Maestra competition

The American-Colombian also came in third place in the list of La Maestra, the first competition reserved for female conductors, organized by the Philharmonie de Paris and the Paris Mozart Orchestra founded and directed by Claire Gibault.

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January 20, 2022

KCRW FEATURES

LA Opera’s new Latina conductor wants to make classical arts more accessible

Latinos in general have played an important role in the society of LA, and it's time for Latinas in general to take leadership. There are not that many [Latinas] in those positions of leadership culturally. I think it's just a huge responsibility. Hopefully, by me getting these accolades and this post, more Latinas are inspired. This is a real measurement of change that is happening.

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January 1, 2022

KABC

Los Angeles Opera names a Latina from Colombia as resident conductor in 'landmark appointment'

The award-winning conductor is a strong believer that all music has potential to be a classical piece. "In L.A. in general, it's a city with such an explosion of multicultural resources. Our musics are as valuable as our beings," said Gonzalez-Granados.

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September 25, 2021

S.F Chronicle

Debut with the San Francisco Symphony (Review)

González-Granados is still at an early stage in her career... but Friday’s concert revealed an artist of considerable rhythmic vitality and alertness.
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September 10, 2021

The New York Times

Top Orchestras Have No Female Conductors. Is Change Coming?

"There are some really amazing women out there,” she said. “I look at it and I think, ‘Wow, it’s 2021. What are we waiting for?’

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May 26, 2021

Broadway World

Bryant Park Picnic Performances Summer Season Opens

Bryant Park Picnic Performances season of free, ticketed live performances will begin on June 9 at 7pm with a show featuring the New York Philharmonic's 25+ member orchestra. Additional performances are scheduled for June 10, 11 and 12.

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May 17, 2021

The Violin Channel

Solti Foundation Awards Conductors Career Assistance Prizes

15 young American conductors will continue their success with this prestigious award

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November 13, 2020

Bachtrack

Branford Marsalis and Lina Gonzalez-Granados: A Dream couple on the concert screen

Under her warm and always committed conducting, the excellent wind soloists were able to shine in the wind serenade by Antonín Dvořák.
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July 11, 2020

Solti Foundation

Recipient of a 2020 Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation US

Lina is one of ten conductors awarded a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation US. These grants are given each year to young American conductors early in their careers who have chosen to follow a path similar to the legendary Sir Georg Solti.

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February 20, 2020

The Seattle Times

Meet Lina Gonzalez-Granados

Meet Lina Gonzalez-Granados, one of the first Latin American women to hold a conducting position with the Seattle Symphony

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March 8, 2019

Rhinegold Publishing

BBC Radio 3 turn the spotlight on female composers for International Women’s Day

Giving their perspective on the music industry and an insight into their own experiences, the eight conductors below will throughout the day share with us their hopes for encouraging more women into the profession.

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