About

Beatrice Jona Affron  is the Associate Music Director Designate of New York City Ballet. In 1993, she joined Philadelphia Ballet, formerly Pennsylvania Ballet, as assistant conductor. Later she was promoted to resident conductor, and from 1997 to the present, she served as the company’s music director. Beatrice has conducted many ballets by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, in addition to full-length classics, such as  Giselle, The Firebird, Romeo and Juliet, and The Sleeping Beauty. In 2004, she led the world premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s Swan Lake.

A graduate of Yale University, Beatrice studied conducting privately with Robert Spano as well as with Pascal Verrot at New England Conservatory, where she later served on the faculty. Beatrice has worked with Gunther Schuller, Jorge Mester, and David Effron and, in 1996, received the Conductors Guild Thelma A. Robinson Award.

Beatrice led the national tour of Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles in the fall of 1997. In 2002, Beatrice received international attention while conducting the world-premiere performances of Glass and Mary Zimmerman’s Galileo Galilei at Chicago’s Goodman Theater as well as on tour to London’s Barbican Theatre. Prior to this, she conducted the Boston Lyric Opera and Chicago Opera Theatre productions of Glass’ Akhnaten. In 2005, she made her debut with the Glimmerglass Opera conducting a new production (in French) of Donizetti’s Lucie de Lammermoor.

Beatrice’s other engagements include Dominick Argento’s Miss Havisham’s Fire with Opera Theatre Saint Louis, Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with Boston Lyric Opera, as well as Hansel and Gretel and The Tender Land at the New England Conservatory. Beatrice has toured to the Kennedy Center and the National Arts Center of Canada and recently made her debut at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.  She has appeared with Atlanta Ballet, Boston Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Nashville Ballet, and Miami City Ballet.