The Ulster Orchestra has appointed Anna Handler as its new chief conductor. The 30-year-old, born in the Côte d'Azur to a German father and Colombian mother, takes up the role on an initial three-year contract with the option to extend. She starts with the orchestra's 2026-27 season, which opens on 25 September at the Ulster Hall in Belfast.

Handler studied piano and conducting at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich and completed a master's degree in conducting at the Juilliard School in New York. In 2020 she received the Maria Ladenburger prize. She currently holds positions as Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper Berlin, assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and artist-in-residence for the 2026-27 season at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.

The appointment follows a two-year search after Daniele Rustioni stepped down as chief conductor in May 2024. Rustioni was later named the orchestra's music-director laureate. During the interim period, the ensemble performed under a series of guest conductors. Patrick McCarthy, the orchestra's artistic director and a former principal trumpeter, said the search was difficult and the period without a chief conductor had been destabilising.

A trial concert in Derry featuring Haydn's Symphony No. 49 helped seal the decision. McCarthy described the performance as the best Haydn he had ever heard, and said the musicians responded immediately. Handler said she was pleased by the orchestra's youthful energy and open-mindedness during rehearsals.

McCarthy noted that Handler brings a deeply thoughtful approach and a willingness to take risks, and that the orchestra is keen to explore new directions. Handler described her conducting style as a balance between providing a precise musical framework and allowing players interpretive freedom.

The 2026-27 season opens with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with youth choirs, Brahms's Academic Festival Overture, and Benjamin Britten's Young Apollo, featuring Belfast pianist Senan Sheridan as soloist. In October, during the Belfast International Arts Festival, Handler will conduct Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. Other highlights include Bruckner's Sixth Symphony with Brahms's Violin Concerto, and a closing concert in May pairing Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring with a work by Steve Reich, who turns 90. Handler also plans to programme works by contemporary composers such as Grace-Evangeline Mason, and hopes to bring her mentor, the composer John Adams, to Belfast to conduct.

Handler has a strong family background in the arts: her mother works in art and her sister is a violinist. She founded her own orchestra at age 17. During a recent visit, she explored Belfast on foot, visited the Giant's Causeway, and began watching the television series Game of Thrones.

Tickets for the 2026-27 season go on sale on Friday, 19 June.