Erina Yashima

German-born conductor Erina Yashima has been the First Kapellmeister at the Komische Oper Berlin since the 2022/23 season. She was previously Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where she assisted Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and other guest conductors and conducted various concert programmes herself.

Erina Yashima is one of the most sought-after young talents and has already worked with renowned ensembles and orchestras worldwide. In the 2023/24 season, she will make her debut with the WDR Funkhausorchester, the North Carolina Symphony, the Nürnberger Symphoniker, the Tonkünstler-Orchester as well as the English National Opera (Die Zauberflöte) and the Bregenz Festival (Der Freischütz) and will return to the Orchestra della Toscana in Florence for two programmes. She will also conduct the new production of Elena Kats-Chernin's Nils Holgersson and the revival of Così fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte at the Komische Oper Berlin.

In the 2022/2023 season, she made her debuts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester, the Houston Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, among others, and conducted Don Giovanni at the Ravenna Festival and the Teatro Galli in Rimini. At the Komische Oper, she conducted the new productions of Così fan tutte and Hamlet, the revivals of Rusalka and Die Zauberflöte as well as various concerts.

Other recent highlights include her return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony as well as her debuts with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the Orchestra della Toscana, the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Arena di Verona.

Erina Yashima is equally at home in music theatre and on the concert stage. In 2022, she made her debut with a new production of Mozart's Così fan tutte by the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center and conducted Rusalka at the Krefeld and Mönchengladbach theatres. In Italy, she conducted a new production of Don Giovanni at the Teatro Verdi di Pisa in 2020. She also conducted Le nozze di Figaro in Novara and Ravenna in 2019 and La Cenerentola, first in Lucca and Ravenna in 2017 and then in Piacenza with the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra in 2018. She made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2017 with a production of Der Schauspieldirektor for children. Previously, she was a répétiteur with conducting duties at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern.

Riccardo Muti has been an important mentor for Erina Yashima since 2015. As a scholarship holder of the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprenticeship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she assisted Riccardo Muti and worked regularly with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as well as with many renowned guest soloists and conductors, including Yo-Yo Ma, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph Eschenbach and Edward Gardner.

As part of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, Erina Yashima performed with the Camerata Salzburg at the 2018 Salzburg Festival. In the same year, she also assisted Zubin Mehta and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Other orchestras she has performed with include the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Transylvania State Philharmonic of Cluj-Napoca, the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt (Oder), the Aspen Chamber Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Rostov State Philharmonic, the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker, the Charlotte Symphony, the Albany Symphony, the Eugene Symphony and the World Youth Symphony Orchestra in Interlochen.

In 2015, Erina Yashima took part in the Italian Opera Academy in Ravenna, where she worked on Verdi's Falstaff together with Riccardo Muti, as well as a masterclass with Bernard Haitink at the Lucerne Festival and the INTERAKTION workshop.

Erina Yashima began her training at the Institut zur Früh-Förderung musikalisch Hochbegabter (IFF) at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in her home town of Hanover and studied piano with Bernd Goetzke. She received her first conducting lessons at the age of 14. After studying in Freiburg with Scott Sandmeier and in Vienna with Mark Stringer, she completed her conducting studies at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin with Christian Ehwald and Hans-Dieter Baum.