Apparently I started this in late July, then managed to forget all about it. Here we go. There's some big news here.
- Jakub Hrůša will succeed Semyon Bychkov at the Czech Philharmonic. Bychkov's tenure there concludes in 2028.
- Australian conductor Ingrid Martin will become assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony in September, 2025.
- Pola Benke becomes assistant conductor of the Pacific Symphony on August 1, 2025.
- Leonard Slatkin will be artistic advisor to the Nashville Symphony for three years, as they search for a new music director.
- Patrick Summers to step down from Houston Grand Opera at the end of this season (2025-26), after 27 years as their music director.
- James Gaffigan to succeed Patrick Summers at Houston Grand Opera. He'll be music director designate for 2026-27, then becomes music director in 2027-28.
New updates (major thanks to reader Geo. for most of these!):
Open positions:
- San Francisco Symphony, with the departure of Esa-Pekka Salonen
- Orchestre Philharmonique of Monte-Carlo, in August, 2026 , when Kazuki Yamada leaves
- National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, in 2026 when Alexander Shelley leaves.
- Symphony Tacoma when Sara Ionnides leaves in 2026
- Boston Baroque, when Martin Pearlman leaves.
- Berkeley Symphony, when Joseph Young leaves.
- Milwaukee Symphony
- 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 Mäkelä moves on in 2027
- Orchestre de Paris, when Klaus Mäkelä 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
- Bergen Philharmonic
- 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, at the start` of the 2026-27 season, 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
- 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
- Joseph Young
- Kirill Karabits
- 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:
- Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra appoints conductor, harpsichordist, solo bassoonist, and Olivier Award winner Peter Whelan, as of the 2026-27 season
- English National Opera: Andre de Ridder becomes music director in 2027
- Antwerp Symphony: Marc Albrecht becomes chief conductor in 2026
- Teatro Regio Turin: Andrea Battistoni became music director this past January
- Residentie Orchestra, The Hague: Jun Markl is now chief conductor, after Anja Bihlmaier finished her 4 years there
- Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra: Andre de Ridder will leave in 2027 to go to ENO
- Teatro alla Scala: Riccardo Chailly leaves at the end of 2026. Myung-Whun Chung begins at the start of 2027
- Norwegian Radio Orchestra: Holly Hyun Choe becomes principal conductor in January 2026
- Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie: Marzena Diakun becomes chief conductor in 2026
- Delaware Symphony Orchestra: Michelle Di Russo becomes music director this fall
- Korean National Symphony Orchestra: Roberto Abbado becomes music director in January 2026
- Domingo Hindoyan will be the next music director of L.A. Opera
- Iván López Reynoso is the new music director of the Atlanta Opera
- Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, with the appointment of Markus Poschner
- Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, with the appointment of Kent Nagano
- Eugene (OR), with the appointment of Alex Prior
- 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.
3 comments:
Here are some recent music director / principal conductor updates for you:
* Bochum Symphony Orchestra: Aurel Dawidiuk becomes chief conductor in the fall of 2026, succeeding Tung-Chieh Chuang.
* Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: Cristian Macelaru is their new music director this season
* Colorado Springs Philharmonic: Chloe Dufresne is their new music director this season
* Las Vegas Philharmonic: Rei Hotoda becomes music director in 2026
* Les Violons du Roy: Bernard Labadie returns as music director next fall
* London Mozart Players; Jonathan Bloxham is their new principal conductor as of this season
* National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland: Alexander Shelley becomes principal conductor in autumn 2026
* National Arts Centre Orchestra: John Storgards becomes music director in autumn 2026
* Orchestre de Paris: Esa-Pekka Salonen becomes principal conductor in the fall of 2027
* Orchestre National de Cannes: Holly Hyun Choe becomes principal conductor in the fall of 2026
* Orchestre National de France: Cristian Maceleru ends his tenure in 2027. Philippe Jordan becomes music director in the fall of 2027
* Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra: Petr Popelka leaves next season. Elias Grandy takes his place as chief conductor next fall
* RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Madrid: Christoph Konig leaves at the end of next season. Alexandre Bloch becomes their new principal conductor next fall
* Sinfonietta de Lausanne: Lucie Leguay becomes music director in the fall of 2026, taking over from David Reiland.
* Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra: Andres Orozco-Estrada becomes chief conductor next fall
* Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra: Kazushi Ono concludes his time as music director next April. Pekka Kuusisto becomes chief conductor in April 2028
Lower-level appointments from your list:
* MG-T: she becomes principal guest conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in the fall of 2027. (With 3 kids, totally understandable if she doesn't feel like a full-time principal conductor post)
* Ilan Volkov: new principal guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2026
* Daniele Rustioni: new principal guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera
One new opening is the Opera National de Lyon, where Rustioni was the most recent music director. (BTW, you might need to work through the past daisy-chained text to iron out inconsistencies, e.g. Marc Albrecht & Philippe Jordan on your 'looking for jobs' list, except that they're not.)
I notice that you haven't gone into mention of the brouhaha over Beatrice Venezi and La Fenice. Of course, right-wing classical music commentators (well, at least one, namely Ivan Hewett) are relishing the chance to shiv the 'libs' who are denouncing her appointment as hypocritical sexists. In fact, this is no such thing. IMVHO, the appointment of Venezi is more like a Hegseth / Kash Patel appointment of an unqualified ideologue to a very important post. Venezi has never led a full stage production or even a full symphony concert at La Fenice. Even grudgingly at the end of Hewett's recent hit-piece in the Telegraph (a.k.a. the "Torygraph"), Hewett acknowledges the folly of this move. But you have to read it all the way to the end to get that.
As always, thank you. I previously reported on Cincinnati and retired that to the musical chairs of the past page.
Yeah, La Fenice, and no, I hadn't gotten to it. It's been a busy couple of months for paid writing. %^)
I'll do a big update in the next few days.
And on a more local front, in July, Marin Symphony announced the appointment of Fawzi Haimor as its 4th-ever Music Director, succeeding Alasdair Neale.
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