Lea Ray has been conducting the Academic Orchestra at TU Ilmenau since October 2023. She has already gained valuable conducting experience in rehearsals and concerts with the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra Constance, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, the Thuringian Philharmonic Orchestra Gotha and the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim. In 2022, she assisted the Young Central German Chamber Opera in the production "Così fan tutte" and led a project ensemble of the "Netzwerk Alte Musik e. V.".
In the 2022/23 season, Lea Ray was a conducting fellow at the Bergische Symphoniker Orchestra Academy, where she conducted the school concerts and the final concerts of the season.
In fall 2023, she assisted Tobias Engeli with the Saxony State Youth Orchestra. She also conducted school concerts with the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra.
Further assistantships at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar and the Chemnitz Opera will follow this year.
Lea Ray is currently studying orchestral conducting at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar in the class of Prof. Ekhart Wycik and Prof. Nicolás Pasquet. She received further inspiration from Prof. Johannes Schlaefli, Prof. Christoph-Mathias Müller, Prof. Richard Wien, Prof. Denis Rouger and Prof. Dieter Kurz. In 2018 and 2020 she was a PROMOS scholarship holder and in 2022 she was funded by the GVL as part of "Neustart Kultur" for further education. Since April 2023, she has been a scholarship holder of the Neue Liszt Stiftung Weimar as part of the Charlotte Krupp Scholarship.
