Anna Handler’s appointment as the Ulster Orchestra’s next Chief Conductor continues the organisation’s habit of backing emerging talent early.
The Ulster Orchestra have announced young conductor Anna Handler to be its new Chief Conductor, debuting in the role in the first concert of its 2026/27 season in September of next year.
Initially signed for three years, the German-Colombian conductor and pianist Handler adds Ulster Orchestra to a developing CV including her 2024 appointment as Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper Berlin, one that builds on already established connections with the LA Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, and Dresden Philharmonic.
Given she only made her conducting debut in 2022 these connections are impressive, even if she’s not yet a staple name in UK circles. In this way the appointment helps her and undoubtedly helps the Ulster Orchestra, underlining its proven track record in seeking out the talent early on with a useful organisational message: ‘the talent’s development is our success’. Ulster has a habit of identifying those on the brink of big things, something reflected in Handler’s predecessors, Rafael Payare and Daniele Rustioni. It’s a valuable marketing strategy which will pay dividends when the message gets picked up beyond Northern Ireland. It’s also helpful financially: Ulster backing talent rather than renting profile helps keep the costs low when budgets are stretched.
That makes the prospect of Handler’s contribution, like that of Rustioni and Payare before him, an intriguing prospect. Whilst there’s obvious enthusiasm in Handler’s comment in the press release – “Over the next three years, we’ll ask what it means to be an orchestra that belongs to now: alive, questioning, connected.” – it will be the substance from the podium that matters. “We’ll play as if it were the first or the last time – because real music doesn’t perform; it becomes,” is eager aspiration that may distance some rather than draw them in.
The opportunity for both conductor and organisation will be ensuring the programmes manifest that vision and appeal to the audiences at the same time. Doing that successfully in the orchestra’s 60th year could yield long-overdue UK and international recognition for this hard-working and dedicated orchestra that has over time eluded it. Quite the prize. This ultimately will come down to programming that needs to stretch and sell tickets. Balancing that is a challenge for any arts organisation, but it might be more keenly felt in Northern Ireland. Arguably Ulster knows what it is. It has all the elements in place. Now it needs to tell its story on the platform and beyond assertively. It will need to hold its nerve and seize the opportunity to shout more loudly about itself.
Anna Handler debuts as Ulster Orchestra’s Chief Conductor on Friday 25 September 2026.
