Keri-Lynn Wilson

Wilson, Keri-Lynn

Keri-Lynn Wilson. Flutist, conductor, b Milwaukee 17 May 1967; ARCT 1985, B MUS (Juilliard) 1988, M MUS flute (Juilliard) 1990, M Mus orchestral conducting (Juilliard) 1993.

Education and training

Keri-Lynn Wilson learned piano from her grandmother Thelma Wilson, singing from her grandfather J. Kerr Wilson, and violin from her father, Carlisle Wilson. She performed with the Junior Musical Club of Winnipeg and later won scholarships from both the Women's Musical Club of Winnipeg and the Wednesday Morning Musicale. She studied flute with Julius Baker at the Juilliard School. In her early career Wilson performed as a flute soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. As the winner of the Artists International competition in 1989, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in the Weill Recital Hall. In 1990 she began studying conducting under Otto-Werner Mueller and also performed in the contemporary music groups Musique Mobile and Continuum and in the Jupiter Symphony Orchestra. Wilson studied conducting with Kurt Masur, James DePreist and Leonard Slatkin and received the Bruno Walter Fellowship.

Conducting

Keri-Lynn Wilson made her conducting debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1990 and then conducted the Juilliard Orchestra, the Cosmopolitan Symphony and the Opera Français of New York. After graduating in 1994, Wilson became conducting fellow and assistant to Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood and worked with Claudio Abbado at the Salzburg Festival. She was the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's associate conductor 1994-8. Wilson has conducted the Rome Opera Orchestra, featuring Jose Carreras and Andrea Bocelli and the Hong Kong Orchestra with the violinist Isaac Stern.

In 2003, Keri-Lynn Wilson married Peter Gelb, president of Sony Classical and general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. Although she is based in New York, Wilson's guest-conducting career has taken her around the world, conducting opera and symphony and chamber orchestras. Her first CD, Danzón (Dorian CD-90254), was recorded with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Caracas, Venezuela, in 1998. Wilson has conducted most major Canadian symphonies, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, where in 2002 she conducted a live broadcast for the CBC's 50th anniversary. Wilson has also conducted numerous major orchestras in the United States, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to the Palm Beach Opera.

In Europe, Keri-Lynn Wilson has made a mark on the traditionally male-dominated conducting profession by leading the musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig and other orchestras. She has also oriented herself toward conducting prestigious operatic societies in Europe, such as the Vienna State Opera, and in North America. In 2007 Wilson led an all-Italian cast and orchestra in the production of Rigoletto in Hong Kong.

She has since conducted opera performances around the world including in Tel Aviv (Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame); St Petersburg (Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (2009); l'opéra de Montréal (Verdi's Simon Boccanegra) 2010.

She has continued to divide her time between symphonic and operatic work.

Her aunt Kerrine Wilson, her uncle Eric Wilson, her sister Tiffany and her brother Carlisle also enjoy musical lives.

Selected Readings

Koster, Rick. Texas Music (2000)