ABOUT
"What is most captivating is the expressiveness of her playing and her impressive presence, which makes her the self-evident center of the action; she lives "her" music. "Her" is intentionally chosen because she makes the music entirely her own. She never delivers, but brings to life. Stylistically she is absolutely confident; her personal cadenza in the Mozart concerto and her sovereign conducting from the piano clearly prove that."
(Valérie Groß, Deutsche Grammophon - jury's verdict on the occasion of the awarding of the Maria-Ladenburger-Förderpreis 2020)
The young pianist and conductor Anna Isabella Handler (1996), of German-Colombian origin and raised in Munich, received her pianistic training as a young student at the Accademia Pianistica di Imola in Italy and from 2014 at the Musikhochschule München in the class of Prof. Adrian Oetiker. Since April 2019 she is a master student in the class of Prof. Henri Sigfridsson at the Folkwang University of the Arts. She is currently completing her bachelor's degree in orchestral conducting with Prof. Ekhart Wycik and Prof. Nicolas Pasquet at the Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar.
Since January 2021 she is a scholarship holder of the Bergische Symphoniker Orchestra Academy and assistant to GMD Daniel Huppert.
In the special discipline of "conducting from the piano", she won 3rd prize at the International Hans von Bulow Competition in September 2018 as the first female prizewinner and made her debut with the Meininger Hofkapelle with Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 488, a concert she recorded with her ensemble Enigma Classica.
In October 2019, she was awarded the Rising Star Award by the Initiativkreis Mönchengladbach and the European cultural foundation EUROPAMUSICALE. In October 2020 she was awarded the Maria-Ladenburger-Förderpreis für Musik in the chamber music hall of the Beethoven Haus in Bonn, in cooperation with the WDR, the Bischöfliche Studienförderung Cusanuswerk and Deutsche Grammophon. She is a scholarship holder of the Cusanuswerk and the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein.
At the Bavarian State Opera, she assisted Oksana Lyniv in the productions of Mauerschau and Greek and, at the age of 23, took over the musical direction of the production EVA and ADAM, which premiered as part of the 2019 Munich Opera Festival.
In October 2020, she conducted a concert as part of the Munich Festival Stars and Rising Stars with her ensemble Enigma Classica, as well as violinist Arabella Steinbacher and pianist Can Cakmur.
"Anyone who wants to observe what is possible in terms of direct communication between an orchestra and its conductor must hear the Ensemble Enigma Classica under its founder Anna Handler. Every encouraging smile, every sharp look, every stimulating gesture leads to an immediately audible consequence in the excellent young musicians, who pay attention to their conductor as if hypnotized. But the Munich native, not yet in her mid-twenties, is infinitely more than a motivational coach: her conducting technique is impeccable." Michael Bastian Weiß, Abendzeitung München, 21.20.2020
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