In 2019, after 23 remarkable seasons as Principal Oboe of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO), Lidia Khaner retired from that position, eager to take on new musical challenges. She completed a master's degree in conducting from the University of Alberta in 2017 and has begun to gain additional experience and training in ensemble leadership. She has participated in workshops with Neil Varon (Eastman School of Music), Dirk Brossé, and John Farrer (New York Chamber Orchestra Workshop), as well as with Robert Taylor, Mallory Thompson, Dale Lonis, and Craig Kirchhoff. In the summer of 2019, she participated in a workshop with the National Presidential Orchestra of Ukraine in Kyiv, led by Christopher Lyndon-Gee. She has also been selected for the Emerging Conductor Program with Pro Coro Canada, Edmonton's professional choir.

Ms. Khaner studied oboe in her native Poland at the Warsaw Academy of Music and graduated with distinction in 1987. As a member of the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Polish Chamber Orchestra, she toured the world, performing both orchestral parts and solo concerts. During a sabbatical, she studied in Germany at the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik with Ingo Goritzki and played with the Deutsche Kammerakademie. Ms. Khaner was Principal Oboe with Sinfonia Helvetica from 1992 to 1997. She came to Canada to join the Edmonton Symphony in 1996.

Her ESO tenure was marked by countless achievements, including dozens of performances and recordings as an oboe soloist, not only with the ESO but also with the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, the Red Deer Symphony, and the Edmonton Chamber Orchestra. Now that she has turned her wealth of experience and superb musicianship to a new arena, Lidia is particularly interested in using her skills to provide opportunities for emerging musicians to play alongside experienced professionals in a performance setting. She is a founder, Artistic Director, and Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of Edmonton, a professional ensemble, the only one of its kind in Edmonton. Additionally, she serves as the conductor of the River City Chamber Orchestra, a pre-professional ensemble dedicated to preparing young musicians for careers in the professional orchestral world, as well as the artistic director and conductor of Polonia Choir.

She has been teaching at the University of Alberta as a sessional instructor since 2002, first in oboe and now in conducting.