In a short time, Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska, born in 1984 in Kyiv, has amassed an enviable range of achievements. A student of the renowned teacher Jorma Panula and the inspired maverick conductor Leif Segerstam, she conducted the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in 2018 and became Chief Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in 2021. It is in the UK, however, that her ascent has been particularly notable. The BBC Symphony Orchestra appointed her Principal Guest Conductor in 2019, and although not the first woman to do so, she has conducted both the First and Last Nights of the Proms more than once. She was on the podium for the Last Night of the audience-less “pandemic Proms” in 2020 and for the First Night and the opening concert of the Edinburgh International Festival the following year. Now a regular guest with orchestras around the world, in 2020 she was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Conductor Award. A specialist in Finnish music, Stasevska is also dedicated to commissioning and premiering music by contemporary composers such as Thomas Adès, Anna Clyne, Hildur Guðnadóttir and James MacMillan.