Get to know Valentina Paolucci
Get to know The Gena Branscombe Project’s 2026 Conductor scholarship winner, Valentina Paolucci! She is a rising orchestral conductor and violinist currently based in New York City. A recent graduate from the Juilliard School with a Masters Degree in Orchestral Conducting, she was awarded the Robert Craft-Igor Stravinsky Conducting Award upon graduation. Valentina is currently a Conducting Fellow with The Chelsea Symphony and Music Director of the NYO-USA Alumni Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. (Valentina with her winner's coffee mug) Valentina spent several weeks this summer at the Domaine Forget Académie internationale de musique et de danse in Saint-Irénée, Quebec being inspired with beautiful music making and learning from world renowned conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Kensho Watanabe. The culmination of her weeks of lessons and coachings was the honor of conducting the Orchestre Métropolitain in the final concert. Completing her weeks in Canada, she quickly lef...