Keri-Lynn Wilson Appointed Chief Conductor of Kyiv Camerata

The Kyiv Camerata has appointed Keri-Lynn Wilson, 57, as its new chief conductor. The Canadian conductor succeeds founder Valery Matyukhin, who led the orchestra until his death in 2023. "We chose Keri-Lynn for her musical strengths and her commitment to contemporary Ukrainian music," said Bohdana Pivnenok, General Director and Artistic Director of the chamber orchestra. Wilson hails from Winnipeg, the city with the largest Ukrainian population in North America.

Founded in 1977, the Kyiv Camerata promotes the works of Ukrainian composers such as Valentin Sylvestrov, Yevgeny Stankovych, and Myroslav Skoryck, while also commissioning new works. As the second chief conductor in the ensemble's history, Wilson will lead concerts both in Ukraine and abroad. In early October, the Kyiv Camerata will perform at the annual festival of contemporary music in Kyiv, and in late November, they will hold a joint concert with the National Philharmonic Orchestra to honor the millions of victims of Stalin's purges. Additional performances are planned in Ukraine for spring and early summer 2025, along with a concert in Berlin in April 2025 and other international tours.

Wilson is renowned for her work with leading orchestras and opera houses worldwide. Recently, she has conducted the Japanese NHK Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, and has performed at London's Royal Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she founded the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, composed of musicians from major orchestras and opera houses across the invaded country. In April 2024, she guest-conducted the Kyiv Camerata at Carnegie Hall in New York.

"Musicians in Ukraine are the artistic soul of this courageous country, which is fighting for its future," Wilson said on her appointment. "It is my duty to support them in their fight for freedom in every way I can."