November 2020–April 2021
Joined Boston Ballet in 2018
Mischa Santora joined Boston Ballet as Music Director in 2018. Prior to that as the artistic director of the Spotlight Series at MacPhail Center for Music and the Minneapolis Music Company, Santora curated innovative and interdisciplinary performances around the Twin Cities. A champion of new music, he recently premiered works by Sally Beamish, Timo Andres, and Steve Heitzeg with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra. Previous positions include Music Director of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Hungarian International Opera Festival, New York Youth Symphony, and Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.
In North America, Santora has appeared with the Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Louisville Orchestras; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Houston, National, New Jersey, Kansas City, Phoenix, Indianapolis, North Carolina, Hartford, Princeton, and Hamilton (Ontario) Symphonies; as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.
In Europe and the Middle East, he has led the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Basel and Lucerne Symphony Orchestras, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Matáv Symphony, the Miskolc Symphony, the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra's Chorus, the Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra.
Born to Hungarian parents in the Netherlands, Santora moved to Switzerland at the age of three where he began to study violin with his father, a former member of the Lucerne Symphony. After he received a diploma in violin and teaching from the Academy for School and Church Music in Lucerne, Santora continued his violin studies with Professor Thomas Brandis, former concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Santora subsequently undertook conducting studies with Otto-Werner Mueller at the Curtis Institute of Music.
Photo credit: Liza Voll
Meet Music Director Mischa Santora
Mischa Santora
Get to know Music Director Mischa Santora and discover how together with Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen, he plans to further Boston Ballet’s commitment to live music.
Video by Ernesto Galan
Hear from Boston Ballet's music director on the correlation between music and movement in this daring piece.
Inside Look: Mischa Santora on George Balanchine's Agon
Music Director Mischa Santora shares the meaning behind the music in Agon, a powerhouse collaboration between choreographer George Balanchine and composer Igor Stravinsky.