Music Director Boston Symphony Orchestra,
Gewandhauskapellmeister Leipzig

Andris Nelsons is Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. These two positions, in addition to his leadership of a pioneering alliance between both institutions, have firmly established Grammy Award-winning Nelsons as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today.

Nelsons’ positions in Boston and Leipzig commenced in the 2014/15 season and in February 2018, respectively. Autumn 2019 marked a ground-breaking highlight for Nelsons, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig: three performances featuring musicians from both institutions within one joint orchestra were given at Boston’s Symphony Hall as part of the alliance between the two orchestras. Earlier this year, this unique partnership between both orchestras culminated in another highlight, a joint release of the major symphonic works by Richard Strauss for Deutsche Grammophon, including Strauss’s Festliches Präludium jointly performed by musicians from both orchestras. To mark the release, Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig completed a major residency tour to London, Hamburg, Vienna and Paris to perform two all-Strauss programmes. 

This season, Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra embark on an extensive tour to Japan, including three prestigious concert dates at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Furthermore, the BSO and Nelsons will continue their guest appearances at Carnegie Hall in April 2023 together with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Gautier Capuçon. Following their season opening tour together in September, a major highlight for Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig include their residency at the Salzburg Easter Festival in April 2023, where three symphonic programmes will be presented in addition to performances of Wagner’s Tannhäuser featuring Jonas Kaufmann in the title role. In May 2023, the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig present the Mahler Festival in Leipzig where Nelsons will conduct symphonies No. 2 and 8. Elsewhere, Nelsons will continue collaborating with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Mitsuko Uchida this season, before returning to work with the Wiener Philharmoniker – with whom he conducted the prestigious New Year’s Day concert in 2020, broadcast to millions across the world – and will also embark on a European tour featuring Lang Lang and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Andris Nelsons has an exclusive recording relationship with Deutsche Grammophon, which has paved the way for three landmark projects with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Wiener Philharmoniker. Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra partner on recordings of the complete Shostakovich symphonies and the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District - this cycle is already the recipient of four GRAMMY awards in the categories Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Album. Furthermore, Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig continue their critically acclaimed Bruckner symphonic cycle. Both cycles released their fifth instalments in 2021. Nelsons’ recordings of Beethoven’s complete symphonies with the Wiener Philharmoniker, in celebration of the composer’s 250th birthday, were released in October 2019.

Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra whilst studying conducting. He was Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2008-2015, Principal Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany 2006-2009 and Music Director of the Latvian National Opera 2003-2007.
 

SEASON 2022/2023