ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
German-born Erina Yashima began her tenure as assistant conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra in September 2019. In this role she assists Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin as well as guest conductors, and leads The Philadelphia Orchestra in a variety of educational and special concerts.
As a rising star in the industry, Ms. Yashima has performed all over the world with acclaimed ensembles and orchestras. Recent highlights include her debut at the Arena di Verona and a return to the Chicago Symphony, as well as debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, the Aspen Chamber Symphony, the Rostov State Philharmonic, the Colorado Music Festival, and a new opera production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Teatro di Pisa in Italy.
The 2021–22 season will see Ms. Yashima debut with the Seoul Philharmonic, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the Orchestra della Toscana, the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, the Albany Symphony, the Eugene Symphony, and the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker, among others. She will conduct a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte in her debut with Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center and a production of Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Theater Krefeld und Mönchengladbach.
Ms. Yashima has been studying with Riccardo Muti since 2015. As winner of the Chicago Symphony’s Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprenticeship, she has assisted Mr. Muti and worked closely with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In addition she has collaborated with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and assisted such guest conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph Eschenbach, and Edward Gardner.
Equally committed as an opera conductor, Ms. Yashima made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2017 with Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor. She has also led productions of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in Novara and Ravenna, as well as Rossini's La Cenerentolain her 2017 Italian opera debut in Lucca and later in Piacenza, with the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra. Previously she served as répétiteur with conducting duties at the Pfalztheater in Kaiserslautern, where she conducted performances of My Fair Lady.
As one of three finalists in the prestigious Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, Ms. Yashima performed with the Camerata Salzburg at the Salzburg Festival in 2018. In November of the same year she was assistant conductor to Zubin Mehta and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra. She has conducted the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, the Transylvania State Philharmonic of Cluj-Napoca, the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo.
In 2015 Ms. Yashima was a participant in the Italian Opera Academy in Ravenna, working with Mr. Muti on Verdi’s Falstaff, and in Bernard Haitink’s master class at the Lucerne Festival. That same year she was chosen as a finalist at the INTERAKTION workshop, leading musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Berlin, and the Staatskapelle Dresden, among others.
As a pre-college piano student of Bernd Goetzke, Ms. Yashima began her musical studies at the Institute for the Early Advancement of the Musically Highly Gifted in her hometown of Hannover, where she received her first conducting lessons at the age of 14. After studying conducting in Freiburg with Scott Sandmeier and in Vienna with Mark Stringer, she completed her studies at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin with Christian Ehwald and Hans-Dieter Baum. For more information please visit www.erinayashima.com.
September 2021
Photo by Todd Rosenberg Photography