The first time 11-year-old Kalena Bovell held a violin and bow, she knew her future was in music. The first time she held a baton as a college student, she knew what that future would look like.
“I knew after giving that first downbeat in college that conducting was what I wanted to do with my life,” recalls Bovell, a Los Angeles native who now lives in Philadelphia. “It was the fact that there was this energy and this sound coming toward me that I could mold and shape with other people that was infectious.”
Bovell will conduct Opera Orlando’s production of Madame Butterfly on Friday and Saturday, October 2 and 3, at 7:30 p.m. There’ll be a matinee on Sunday, October 4. All performances will be in Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center.
Though Bovell “lived music 24/7” from the time she held a violin, she didn’t start formal training until age 18. The hard work began in earnest as the young musician worked multiple jobs to fund the training she needed to play musical catch-up.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Chapman University in
Orange, California, followed by a master’s in music and graduate professional diploma from The Hartt School, a performing arts school in Hartford, Connecticut.
“We all have a different path,” says Bovell. “I truly believe that my journey is authentic to me.” Indeed, she credits her late start with shaping her into the artist that she has become.
Certainly, Bovell’s accomplishments are impressive. She became the first Black woman to conduct an opera in Canada, and a year later, in 2024, she was awarded the prestigious Sphinx Medal of Excellence from the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based social justice nonprofit dedicated to increasing diversity and representation in classical music.
Bovell is not only an accomplished conductor but also a published poet. Composer James Lee III set her 2009 work, Tethered Voices, to music that was performed by the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra. Madame Butterfly will mark her debut with Opera Orlando.
Dr. Phillips Center is located at 445 South Magnolia Avenue, Orlando. For more information, call 407.358.6603 or visit drphillipscenter.org.
