Music Executives Moving In and Moving On

I have been thinking that I need a music executive equivalent to the regular listings of conductor appointments, so, here we go. This is mostly from memory and I welcome updates from others.

Recently appointed:

• Matias Tarnopolsky to the NY Philharmonic, commencing January 1, 2025
• Kim Notelmy to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, commencing July 8, 2024
• Brent Assink to acting CEO of the Minnesota Orchestra, August, 2024
• John Mangum to CEO of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, commencing fall, 2024

Open positions:

• Minnesota Orchestra
• Philadelphia Orchestra, with Matias Tarnopolsky's appointment to the NY Philharmonic
• Dallas Symphony, with Kim Notelmy's appointment to the LA Phil
• Cincinnati Symphony, following the retirement of Jonathan Martin in February, 2025
• St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, after Jon Limbacher retires next year

Matias Tarnapolsky to the NY Philharmonic

 

Matias Tarnopolsky

Photo by Jeff Fusco, courtesy of the NY Philharmonic

There had been rumors that the NY Phil was negotiating with Matias Tarnopolsky to succeed Gary Ginstling as President and CEO of the orchestra, following Ginstling's 18 months in those positions. Apparently they were true, as the orchestra announced Tarnopolsky's appointment today.

He has been president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2018. Previously, he was executive and artistic director of Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley. (This is the reason that he is the only head of a large U.S. orchestra with whom I am on first-name terms.) He has also been Vice President, Artistic Planning, at the New York Philharmonic, 2005–09, as well as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. 

For more information, read the NYPO's press release and the NY Times article (gift link) about this appointment.

Museum Mondays

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, as Cynthia the Moon Goddess

Mary Cosway

Tate Britain, London

July, 2024

 

Also Playing

Ildiko Komlosi as the Nurse

Die Frau ohne Schatten, 2013; Vladimir Jurowski conducting

Photo: Ken Howard, courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera

A side note to my earlier post about Die Frau ohne Schatten: I looked up Harold C. Schonberg's 1966 NY Times review of the first Met performances. (They weren't the first U.S. performances, an honor taken by San Francisco Opera.)

The review is quite a lot of fun. He calls the finale "vulgar" and remarks with some amusement about the staging effects, which showed off the stage elevator in the new Met. (The current production does as well.)

If you're a Times subscriber, you can see the review here: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/.../1966/10/03/issue.html

BUT, regardless, what I most want to call out is the shows that were running on Broadway at the same time that Frau opened. They included:

• Tandy and Cronyn in Albee's "A Delicate Balance."
• Ethel Merman in a new version of Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun"
• "Barefoot in the Park," directed by Mike Nichols
• Lauren Bacall in "Cactus Flower"
• Arlene Francis, Walter Pidgeon, and others in "Dinner at Eight"
• Fiddler on the Roof," with Herschel Bernardi, dir. Jerome Robbins
• Mimi Hines in "Funny Girl"
• Ginger Rogers in "Hello, Dolly!"
• Barbara Bel Geddes and Gene Wilder in "Luv," directed by Mike Nichols
• Angela Lansbury in "Mame" ("The new smash hit musical")
• "Man of La Mancha"
• Gwen Verdon in "Sweet Charity"
• Barbara Harris, Larry Blyden, and Alan Alda in "The Apple Tree," a new musical directed by Mike Nichols
• Eddie Bracken and Mike Kellin in "The Odd Couple," directed by Mike Nichols.
• Lee Remick in "Wait Until Dark"

Mike Nichols had FOUR SHOWS running simultaneously.

 

SF Opera Tells Us a Couple of Useful Things

 

War Memorial Opera House

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

San Francisco Opera sent a patron email this afternoon that conveys some useful information!

• The Monkey Kind, by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang, premiers in November, 2025. We knew it was in the 2025-26 season, but not exactly when.
• You can buy tickets for it on February 4, 2025, which must mean that the season announcement is that day. It's a Tuesday, which is when the last I-don't-know-how-many season announcements have gone out. It's a bit later than the third-week-of-January standard SFO held to for many years, but earlier than this year's late February announcement. (Believe me, I have spent most of this year wondering whether that delay was owing to shows being cancelled or postponed, singer contracts bought out or amended, etc.)
• They've got a nice mug for sale and maybe I'll buy one.

Opera 2024

Here's a list of all of the operas I saw in 2024, posted now rather than on December 31 because I won't be seeing any operas between now and the end of the year. (I have already ruled out an East Coast trip for Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Met.) I mean....Gurrelieder doesn't count, right? I'll be basking in its glory at the LA Phil in a couple of weeks. An asterisk indicates that the opera was new to me. 

• Bulrusher, West Edge Opera*
• Jacqueline, West Edge Opera*
• The Finch Opera, Opera Parallèle*
• Balls, Opera Parallèle*
• Fellow Travelers, Opera Parallèle*
• The Righteous, Santa Fe Opera* (world premiere)
• The Magic Flute, San Francisco Opera, Opera San José
• Don Giovanni, Merola Opera, Santa Fe Opera
• The Abduction from the Seraglio, Festival Napa Valley
• Cosi fan tutte, Royal Opera, SFCM
• Innocence, San Francisco Opera* (U.S. premiere)
• Partenope, San Francisco Opera
• Der Rosenkavalier, Santa Fe Opera
• L'elisir d'Amore, Santa Fe Opera
• The Daughter of the Regiment, Livermore Valley Opera
• Tristan und Isolde, San Francisco Opera
• The Handmaid's Tale, San Francisco Opera* (West Coast premiere)
• Carmen, San Francisco Opera
• Un ballo in maschera, San Francisco Opera
• Bluebeard's Castle, San Francisco Symphony
• Erwartung, San Francisco Symphony
• The Merry Wives of Windsor, Pocket Opera*
• Florencia en el Amazonas, Opera San José*
• Dido and Aneaes, Festival Opera
• La voix humaine, Festival Opera
• La Bohème, Opera San Jose
• La Flora, Ars Minerva* (U.S. and modern premiere)

Does Pierrot Lunaire count? It's dramatic but not like Erwartung. I saw it twice this year and had never seen it before.

Babies. Babies! BABIES!

Die Frau ohne Schatten

San Francisco Opera

June, 2023

Johan Reuter (Barak) and Nina Stemme (Dyer's Wife)

Photo: Cory Weaver, Courtesy of San Francisco Opera

The Metropolitan Opera has revived the late Herbert Wernicke's production of Strauss and Hofmannsthal's monumental Die Frau ohne Schatten, giving me an opportunity to get up on a soapbox that's been waiting for me for roughly 18 months, since San Francisco Opera's magnificent staging of the same opera.

Back then, I had a couple of friends telling me, oh no, it's not about babies! They're just a metaphor! Look beyond the words of the libretto!

I'm here to tell you, they were wrong. There was a moment when I pointed out to one of them that the Spirit Messenger makes it quite clear with his first words, which happen to be the second speech in the opera, that Keikobad, the Empress's father, is monitoring her fertility, and he told me he'd never noticed that:

Not our master, not Keikobad but his messenger! Eleven of them have sought you out, a new one with each waning moon. The twelfth moon is down: the twelfth messenger stands before you.

That is, there's been a monthly visit from one of Keikobad's messengers. They're checking to see whether the Empress is pregnant.

I went through the libretto last year and compiled a list of references to babies and fertility in the libretto. Here it is, including the reference above:

1. Keikobad is monitoring the Empress’s fertility, as the Spirit Messenger says in Act 1.

2. Keikobad threatens to turn the Emperor to stone unless she obtains a shadow, though it’s hard to see what he has to do with the Empress’s lack of a shadow. Is it because they really like all of the sex they’re having?

3. The nurse says in Act 1 “He has not loosened the knot of your heart, no unborn babe stirs in your womb.”

4. Barak to the Dyer’s Wife: “If you give me children to cluster round the dishes each evening, I’ll see that none of them gets up hungry. I’ll applaud their appetites, and give thanks in my heart that it falls to me to fill their stomachs." (Touches her gently.) "When will you give me the children to feed?”

5. Dyer’s Wife to Barak: “Two-and-a-half years I’ve been your wife– and you have garnered no fruit from me and have not made a mother of me.”

6. Barak: “I don’t reproach you, my heart is content, and I will be patient and wait for the precious children which will come.”

7. The Nurse of the Dyer’s Wife: “Alas! And she is to bear his children, and waste her life here in obscurity!”

8. The Nurse and the Dyer’s Wife: “Have you wept tears of blood because you have borne no children yet to that block? Quickly, quickly, Do you yearn for them in your heart, night and day? Do you long for a troop of little dyers to trample through you into the world? Is your body to turn into a high road, your slim grace to be compacted under their feet? Are your breasts to droop and their glory to wither so soon?” WIFE “My soul has grown weary of motherhood before even tasting it. I live here in this house, and that man shall not come near me!”

9. Nurse: “Putting away motherhood for ever and aye from your body! And dismissing with that gesture of contempt the importunate babes that will not be born!”

10. CHILDREN’S VOICES through the fish: “Mother, mother, let us come home! The door is bolted, we can’t get in, it’s dark and we’re frightened! Mother, oh, alas!”

11. “.....Or call our dear father and tell him to open the door! Or call our dear father and tell him to open the door!”

12. Dyer’s wife, Act 2: ”I put away from my body the children as yet unborn, and my womb will not bear fruit to you or to any other man, for I have given myself to the winds and the night air, and am at home here and elsewhere, and as a sign of that I have sold my shadow: and the buyers are willing, and the price is glorious and its like will not be found!”

13. The Brothers: “She has sold it and prevented the unborn children coming from her body!”

14. Dyer’s wife, Act 3: “Placed in your care, so as to attend to you, serve, love and bow to you: see you! breathe you, live you! And give you children, best of men!”

15. Voices of Unborn Children, Act 3: (above, from the dome) "Listen, we will say: 'Father!' Listen, we will cry: 'Mother!' Come up here! No, come down here! All the steps lead to us!”

16. EMPEROR: “Those are unborn children, rushing down into life on the red wings of morning and coming to us, who were nearly lost; These strong ones hasten down to us, like starlight. You overcame yourself. Now heavenly messengers release the father and the children— the children yet unborn! They have discovered us, and come hastening down! (steps down from the bottom step”

17. Voices of Unborn Children, to the Wife: “Mother, your shadow! Look, how beautiful! Look at your husband crossing over to you!”

18. EMPRESS AND BARAK’S WIFE "Both casting shadows as we were chosen to do, both of us steeled in the flames of trial. Close to the threshold of death, to being murdered in order to murder, but now blessed with children, and we shall be mothers!" EMPEROR AND BARAK "Both casting shadows as they were chosen to do, both of them steeled in the flames of trial, but now blessed with children and chosen to be mothers!" (A curtain falls, concealing the four figures and the landscape from sight) VOICES OF THE UNBORN CHILDREN "Father, nothing more threatens you, look, Mother, that terror is already dispelled, that led you both astray. Was there ever a feast at which we were not secretly always the guests, and also the hosts! Brothers! Friends!"

The above doesn’t include Barak almost killing the Wife when he thinks that she has sold her shadow or the way that Keikobad blackmails the Empress into seeking a shadow by threatening to turn the Emperor to stone. 

It's really beyond me how you can read the above (not to mention seeing the opera) and not conclude that yes, this opera is, front and center, about having children, and how having children is necessary for women to be fully human.

These points didn't evade Joshua Kosman, who got up on his soapbox about Frau in July, 2022, a year prior to the SFO production, and they're not evading Zachary Woolfe, who reviewed the opera in the NY Times this week ("You might think a four-hour allegorical ode to pregnancy isn’t your thing. But I’m here to tell you: Just go."). I'm going to slightly argue with Woolfe's description of Barak as kindly. The text suggests that his Wife is basically a slave, that she's someone he paid for.

Nobody is denying that one of the central points of this opera is the Empress's transformation as she realizes that she cannot take the shadow from the Dyer's Wife, one of the great moments in all opera, but neither are they denying the opera's focus on fertility and babies. And Joshua Kosman was clear about how this opera lands at a moment when the right wing in the United States has not only gotten Roe v. Wade struck down, it is openly discussing restricting access to contraception, doing away with no-fault divorce, and so on. If somehow this isn't pretty clear to you after reading the above excerpts, well, read them a few more times.

 

SF Opera: 2025 Adler Fellows

War Memorial Opera House

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

San Francisco Opera has announced the 2025 Adler Fellows. The last few years of Adlers have been truly wonderful, a varied group of skilled young singers. 

First up, soprano Olivia Smith and bass-baritone Jongwon Han will be back as third-year Adler Fellows. 

Next, the returning second-year fellows are soprano Georgiana Adams, soprano Caroline Corrales, pianist Julian Grabarek, baritone Samuel Kidd, and tenor Thomas Kinch.

The new first-year fellows are soprano Mary Hoskins, pianist Ji Youn Lee, tenor Sam White, and baritone Olivier Zerouali. 

Soprano Arianna Rodriguez, mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, bass-baritone James McCarthy and pianist Yang Lin have all concluded their fellowships.

I attended two of the Merola concerts and reviewed the Merola Don Giovanni production, and I don't envy anyone trying to choose which Merolini become Adler fellows. The singers in Don Giovanni were a strikingly polished group of singers, a cast that matched the strongly-cast main stage DG directed by Michael Cavanagh a few years ago. Best wishes to all of the 2024 Merolini and to the 2025 Adler Fellows.

 

SF Opera Pride Concert

 

War Memorial Opera House

 (photo: Reneff-Olsen Productions, courtesy of San Francisco Opera)

For the 2024-25 season, San Francisco Opera cut back to six operas and two concerts. The first concert, Eun Sun Kim conducting Beethoven's 9th Symphony, has taken place already. The second concert is next year, on Friday, June 27, 2025, on Pride Weekend, which is appropriate because it's a Pride Concert.

SFO announced the performers the other week, though the repertory has not yet been announced. Here's the press release, which is brief:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (November 15, 2024) — Monét X Change, the multi-hyphenate performer most well known for her appearances on RuPaul’s Drag Race, will emcee San Francisco Opera’s Pride Concert on Friday, June 27, 2025 at the War Memorial Opera House. Classically trained in opera and winner of the fourth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, Monét X Change is among the artists headlining this celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community. Expanding upon the Company’s annual Pride celebrations, the evening includes a special concert, immersive projections and more.

 

Mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Nikola Printz and baritone Brian Mulligan will share the stage with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim for a genre- and era-spanning program mixing classical arias with queer anthems and music showcasing LGBTQIA+ composers, librettists, songwriters and themes. The high-octane evening will be enhanced by digital artist Tal Rosner’s video projections. Complete program and event information will be announced at a later date.

 

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA PRIDE CONCERT

Friday, June 27, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.

War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, 94102

 

Monét X Change, emcee

Eun Sun Kim, conductor

Soloists: mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Nikola Printz; baritone Brian Mulligan

San Francisco Opera Orchestra

 

Tal Rosner, video concept and direction

 

Complete program and event information will be announced at a later date. For information, visit sfopera.com/pride-concert.

 

Tickets are priced from $30–$225 and are available at sfopera.com, the San Francisco Opera Box Office at (415) 864-3330 and in-person at 301 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.

I've never seen Monét X Change, but Barton, Printz, and Mulligan are all great artists and I think I will have to go, genre mixing or not. I wonder if there will be a trapeze for Printz.

Friday Photo

Gonville & Caius College

University of Cambridge

July, 2024

 

San Francisco Symphony Program Update: Salonen/Wang

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Photo by Minna Hatinen, courtesy of San Francisco Symphony

I have no idea what the motivation for this program update is. For the February 13-16, 2025 programs, Yuja Wang was originally going to be the soloist for these works by Igor Stravinsky:

• Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
• Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
• Movements for Piano and Orchestra 

A press release today from SFS says that instead, she'll be playing the following:

• Ravel, Piano Concerto for the Left Hand 
• Rautavaara, Piano Concerto No. 1

Works by Debussy complete the program and those are unchanged.

 

Museum Mondays

London Mithraeum

Bloomberg Building

London, July 2024

 

Venue Accessibility

There's a concert that I am going to in the near future, and I was unable to find accessibility information on the web site of the venue where it's taking place.

It's 2024; the Americans with Disabilities Act became law more than 30 years ago. Every venue should have this information on their web site and it should be easy to find. A venue's accessibility page should cover the following:

• Where wheelchair accessible entrances are
• Ideally, but I've never seen this, path of travel distance from regular and wheelchair accessible entrances to different seating areas. This is useful for ambulatory disabled people.
• Drop-off locations
• Elevator locations
• Locations of accessible toilets
• The types of accessible seating offered, which can include:
• Wheelchair spaces
• Companion space for patrons using wheelchairs
• Bariatric seats
• Seats without arms
• Seats where an armrest can be lifted
• Facilities and assistive devices for people who are deaf or have hearing impairments
• Facilities and assistive devices for people who are blind or have visual limitations
• Whether there are performances for neurodiverse people
• Whether there are performances for people bringing small children

The web site of the San Francisco Opera has a model page that is easy to find. It's linked from their general visitor information page, where the link uses the magic word "accessibility."

The web site the San Francisco Symphony is not so good. It has a very brief section called Patrons with Disabilities on the Visitor FAQs page. I have no idea why the word "accessibility" isn't used. Worse, this page is buried and difficult to find. Using the search box doesn't find it under "disabilities" or "accessibility." You navigate to it this way:

Your Visit -> SCROLL past the section for Upcoming Concerts -> Click View FAQs. 

It's the second section and it doesn't say very much, like telling you which entrance to Davies is accessible.* The particular seats that a disabled person I know uses cannot be purchased on the web, so the page is a bit misleading; you have to call the box office to get purchase them (and they apparently can't be part of a subscription).

* I'll give away the secret: it's the entrance on Grove by the box office. The one on Van Ness near Hayes is up steps.

Conor Hanick Plays Ustvolskaya

This was a few weeks back, but three of us got there. Simon Morrison's talk was excellent; Hanick was fabulous; Ustvolskaya was quite something as a human and as a composer.

• Lisa Hirsch, SFCV
• Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
• David Bratman, Kalimac's Corner

Belated Friday Photo (November 22, 2024)

St. Lawrence Jewry altar

City of London

July, 2024

 

Even More Conductor Updates

I wasn't expecting another installment of this so soon, but needs must. 

• Joseph Young to leave the Berkeley Symphony at the end of the 2024-25 season. The announcement didn't include anything about whether he has a new appointment.
• Martin Pearlman will be retiring from Boston Baroque, which he founded, at the end of the 2024-25 season. He founded the group 52 years ago.
• Adam Hickox becomes chief conductor of the Trondheim Symphony next year. He's the son of the late Richard Hickox. Did I mention children of conductors recently?
• Jaap van Zweden will be music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
• Jaap van Zweden lands another position, as artist in residence at the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan.
• Philippe Jordan appointed chief conductor of the Orchestre National de France, succeeding Cristian Mačelaru. Did I mention children of conductors recently?
• Markus Poschner is the new music director of the Utah Symphony.
• Mark Wigglesworth recently began his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Kirill Karabits. The appointment was announced some time ago, but apparently I missed it.

Open positions:

• Boston Baroque, when Martin Pearlman leaves.
• Berkeley Symphony, when Joseph Young leaves.
• Milwaukee Symphony, when Ken-David Masur leaves.
• New Jersey Symphony, when Xian Zhang leaves at the end of the 2027-28 season.
• Ulster Orchestra, when Daniele Rustioni leaves
• Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, when Daniel Harding leaves
• Oslo Philharmonic, when Klaus Makela moves on in 2027
• Orchestre de Paris, when Klaus Makela moves on in 2027
• Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, when Santu-Matias Rouvali leaves in 2025
• Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra because of the departure of Lorenzo Viotti in 2025
• Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, because of the departure of Lorenzo Viotti in 2025
• Dutch National Opera, because of the departure of Lorenzo Viotti in 2025
• English National Opera
• Bergen Philharmonic
• LA. Opera, at the end of 2025-26
• San Francisco Symphony, at the end of 2024-25
• Phoenix Symphony
• Cleveland Orchestra, as of June, 2027.
• Lahti Symphony, when Dalia Stasevka leaves.
• Antwerp Symphony, with the departure of Elim Chan.
• Paris Opera is currently without a music director.
• Nashville Symphony, when Giancarlo Guerrero leaves.
• Deutsche Oper Berlin, when Donald Runnicles leaves.
• Rottedam Philharmonic, when Lahav Shani leaves.
• Los Angeles Philharmonic, as of 2026-27, when Gustavo Dudamel leaves for NY.
• Teatro Regio Turin: Open now with departure of Gianandrea Noseda. The Teatro Regio has not named a new music director.
• Marin Symphony, at the end of 2022-23.
• Vienna Staatsoper, when Philippe Jordan leaves at the end of 2025.

Conductors looking for jobs (that is, as of the near future, or now, they do not have a posting). The big mystery, to me, is why an orchestra hasn't snapped up Susanna Mälkki. Slightly lesser mystery: Henrik Nanasi, whose superb Cosi fan tutte is still lingering in my ears.

• Ken-David Masur
• Marc Albrecht
• Markus Stenz
• Esa-Pekka Salonen, if he wants such a position again
• James Conlon, if he wants such a position again.
• Dalia Stasevska (though her contract at Lahti has been extended by a year)
• Elim Chan
• Kirill Karabits
• Tito Muñoz 
• Andrey Boreyko
• Osmo Vänskä
• Susanna Mälkki, who left the Helsinki Philharmonic at the end of 2022-23.
• MGT (apparently does not want a full-time job, as of early 2022)
• Miguel Harth-Bedoya (seems settled in at Baylor)
• Sian Edwards
• Ingo Metzmacher
• Jac van Steen
• Ilan Volkov
• Aleksandr Markovic
• Lothar Koenigs
• Henrik Nanasi
• Philippe Jordan, eventually
• Franz Welser-Möst, if he wants such a job

And closed:

• Utah Symphony, with the appointment of Markus Poschner.
• Bournemouth Symphony appoints Mark Wigglesworth as Chief Conductor (some time ago).
• Colorado Symphony appoints Peter Oundjian, effective with the 2025-26 season.
• Pacific Symphony appoints Alexander Shelley to succeed Carl St. Clair, starting with the 2026-27 season.
• Milwaukee Symphony, when Ken-David Masur leaves at the end of 2025-26.
• Seattle Symphony, with the appointment of Xian Zhang as of the 2025-26 season.
• Edward Gardner starts as music director of Norwegian National Opera this season,
• Sarasota Orchestra: Giancarlo Guerrero has been named music director, as of 2025.
• Hong Kong Philharmonic: Tarmo Peltokoski becomes music director in 2026.
• Tokyo Symphony, with the appointment of Lorenzo Viotti.
• Oakland Symphony, where Kedrick Armstrong succeeds the late Michael Morgan.
• Minnesota Opera: closed with the appointment of Christopher Franklin.
• The Chicago Symphony Orchestra gets to share Klaus Mäkelä with the Concertgebouw.
• The Hallé Orchestra's next conductor will be Kahchun Wong.
• Marin Alsop becomes principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, I believe succeeding Nathalie Stutzmann.
• Simon Rattle becomes principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.
• John Storgards will becomes chief conductor of the Turku Philharmonic.
• Update and correction: San Francisco Chamber Orchestra was unable to hire Cosette Justo Valdés. Instead, Jory Fankuchen, a violinist in the orchestra, has been named Principal Conductor and will lead this season's programs.
• Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: Cristian Mačelaru becomes music director in 2025.
• Indianapolis Symphony hires Jun Markel, effective September 1, 2024.
• Andris Nelsons renewed his contract with the Boston Symphony. He's now on an evergreen rolling contract, which will continue as long as he and the orchestra are happy with each other. MTT had one of these at SFS.
• Shanghai Symphony, with the appointment of Long Yu.
• Virginia Symphony, with the appointment of Eric Jacobsen.
• Warsaw Philharmonic, with the appointment of Krzysztof Urbański.
• Bern Symphony, with the appointment of Krzysztof Urbański.
• Berlin State Opera, with the appointment of Christian Thielemann.
• Dresden Philharmonic, with the appointment of Donald Runnicles.
• New York Philharmonic, with the appointment of Gustavo Dudamel. Note that Jaap van Zweden leaves in 2024 and there will be a two-season gap before Dudamel arrives.
• Helsinki Philharmonic: Jukka-Pekka Saraste to succeed Susanna Mälkki.
• Staatskapelle Dresden, with the appointment of Daniele Gatti.
• Seoul Philharmonic appoints Jaap van Zweden.
• Royal Opera appoints Jakub Hrůša to succeed Antonio Pappano.