JoAnn Falletta - The Best of JoAnn Falletta (2024)

JoAnn Falletta is a conductor known primarily for her incisive interpretations of American music (contemporary and earlier works, including many compositions by female composers). She has developed a broad repertory over the years, taking in many of the standards by Mozart, Beethoven, and Debussy, as well as those of lesser currency by Reger, Schreker, Bax, and Ibert. Falletta has led orchestras across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. She has made over 100 recordings for several different labels, winning several major awards.

Falletta was born in Queens, New York, on February 27, 1954. Her parents were non-musicians but encouraged their daughter in her musical pursuits, which began with her interest as a young child in classical guitar. Falletta studied at the Mannes School of Music in New York and later did post-graduate work at Juilliard, where she received a doctorate in conducting in 1989.

Falletta was appointed music director of the Queens Philharmonic Orchestra in 1977, and during her ten-year tenure, took on two other music directorships, the Denver Chamber Orchestra in 1983 (serving until 1992) and the Bay Area Women's Philharmonic, where she served from 1986 to 1996. Falletta was appointed music director of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra in 1989, bringing great financial success to the organization with three sell-out seasons in her first years there; she held this post until 2001. Her first recording, Baroquen Treasures, with the Bay Area Women's Philharmonic, appeared in 1990. An even longer association began with her appointment as music director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in 1991, concluding her tenure there in 2020 when she became the orchestra's music director laureate. Falletta became the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999, making her the first female conductor of a major American orchestra. This appointment placed her among the most important dozen or so American conductors. From 2008 to 2012, she was a member of the National Council on the Arts. In 2019, the Buffalo Philharmonic extended her contract through the 2025-2026 season.

Falletta's recording career has encompassed over 100 recordings on several labels, most notably Naxos. She has won four Grammy Awards: two for the 2008 Naxos recording with the Buffalo Philharmonic of John Corigliano's Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan, and her first individual Grammy, for "Best Classical Compendium" for the 2018 recording Kenneth Fuchs: Piano Concerto "Spiritualist"; Poems of Life; Glacier; Rush, leading the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, Falletta was named the first Classical Woman of the Year by Performance Today. The following year, she issued a recording of Richard Danielpour's The Passion of Yeshua, which earned her a Grammy for Best Choral Performance. To celebrate her 25th anniversary with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Naxos reissued 20 albums that were previously released by the Beau Fleuve label. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke