Xian Zhang
Photo by Cherylynn Tsushima, courtesy of the New Jersey Symphony
Two and a half years after the departure of Thomas Dausgaard, the Seattle Symphony has named Xian Zhang, currently music director of the New Jersey Symphony, as their next music director. Zhang will join Seattle for the 2025-26 season and will remain music director of the New Jersey Symphony until the end of the 2027-28 season.
Open positions:
- New Jersey Symphony, when Xian Zhang leaves at the end of the 2027-28 season.
- Ulster Orchestra, when Daniele Rustioni leaves
- Utah Symphony
- 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.
- Pacific Symphony, when Carl St. Clair retires.
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.
- Marc Albrech
- 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:
- Edward Gardner starts as music director of Norwegian National Opera this season,
- Sarasota Orchestra: Giancarlo Guerrero just got 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: Cristinia 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
Have only seen Xian Zhang once live, a guest appearance with the SLSO that went really, really well, IMVHO. I remember reading strongly positive on-line chatter about her Met Opera debut with 'Madama Butterfly' (the first cast; apparently things weren't so great with the 2nd cast). Based on that admittedly minimal knowledge, and also the general good buzz around her time so far with the New Jersey Symphony, it looks like a really good move on the Seattle Symphony's part to land XZ as its next MD. This assumes, of course, that she can deal with the Seattle Symphony's current executive director, Krishna Thiagarajan, who apparently is a piece of work, from the one article about the Thomas Dausgaard debacle in 'Post Alley' by Douglas McLennan a while back.
ReplyDeleteOn your list, a very few more updates / comments / whatever:
* Shanghai Symphony: Long Yu has been their music director since 2009, per their website. So that situation has long been 'closed'.
* One in the more speculative category is the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, where the most recent announcement of Thomas Dausgaard's RSNO contract extension to 2025 mentioned that TD "will remain in post throughout the 2024:25 Season, with a commitment to work together beyond that point". At the risk of over-reading the tea leaves, I wonder if that's code for saying that TD will step down from the RSNO after this season. However, nothing since from the RSNO has said so in so many words.
Speaking of lady Asian conductors, on the other notable such name on your list, Elim Chan: I've noticed that she has a knack for stepping down early from chief conductor posts because "her career has taken off". This happened with NorrlandsOperan after just one season, and she just left the Antwerp SO one year ahead of her contract. This might give pause to any orchestra that's thinking of taking her on next, like perhaps the RSNO (where she was principal guest conductor) or the LA Phil, if the speculation on CKDH's blog has any substance.