When the revered Italian conductor Riccardo Muti announced Tuesday that he would remain the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through at least the summer of 2022, he said “we have reached a sort of beautiful musical understanding and trust.”
“I think that it’s a great family,” Muti, who will bring the orchestra to Carnegie Hall on Feb. 9 and 10, said in a phone interview. “To make music with these musicians is not only an honor but a privilege — and because I am not 30 years old, but 76, I can say these things without giving the impression that I want to make a career.”
Chicago is secure for the time being, but major orchestras in San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas and Detroit are all looking for new maestros. Here’s your cheat sheet on the comings and goings on some of the nation’s top podiums.
— First Dates
Gianandrea Noseda is in the midst of his first season with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, where he is winning good reviews.
Next season Jaap van Zweden will follow in the footsteps of Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Mahler and Pierre Boulez at the New York Philharmonic.
The following season, in 2019, Stéphane Denève will become music director of the St. Louis Symphony, succeeding David Robertson, currently in his 13th and final season. That year Thomas Dausgaard will also succeed Ludovic Morlot at the Seattle Symphony.
— The Kids Are All Right
When the Los Angeles Philharmonic tapped the wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel in 2009, when he was just 28, it shook up the music world, encouraging other orchestras to take chances on the young.
Dudamel, now 37, has extended his contract in Los Angeles through the 2021-22 season, and continues to be one of the biggest stars in music — even as his recent criticism of the rulers of his native Venezuela has led the government there to cancel a series of his tours.
Andris Nelsons, who became the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s youngest music director in more than a century when he took the post in 2014, at 35, extended his contract before his first year was done through 2021-22. In February, he starts another job, as music director of the venerable Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Germany, and is embarking on an unusual collaboration between his two ensembles.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who became music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2012, at 37, has been credited with bringing new vibrancy to its playing. He recently extended his contract there through 2026. The extension, announced when he was named the next music director of the Metropolitan Opera, reassured Philadelphia that he would not forsake them for the lures of the opera pit.
— Long-Term Relationships
The Cleveland Orchestra has a contract with its music director, Franz Welser-Möst, through his 20th season, in 2022, which would give him the second-longest tenure in the ensemble’s history, after George Szell. Osmo Vanska is in his 15th season leading the Minnesota Orchestra — he briefly resigned in 2013 when the players were locked out by management — and has a contract there through 2022.
Manfred Honeck is in his 10th season with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and has a contract through 2019-20. Louis Langrée, who took over the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2013, is already on his second contract extension, through 2021-22. (And he has a newly renovated Music Hall to play in.)
Marin Alsop, the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007, has raised the orchestra’s profile with tours and premieres and strengthened its ties to its community, including by starting an ambitious music training program for some of the city’s poorest students. She has a contract there through 2021, and this week was named the next chief conductor at the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
One thing has not changed, though: Although more than a decade has passed since she took the post, she remains the only woman leading a top U.S. orchestra. (Susanna Malkki became the principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic last year.)
Two orchestras find themselves entering the dating market for the first time in decades: The San Francisco Symphony needs to find someone to succeed Michael Tilson Thomas when he steps down in 2020, after a transformative 25 seasons. And the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra must find a replacement for Robert Spano, who plans to leave in 2021, after 20 seasons making that ensemble a force in new music.
— On the Market
Not only are San Francisco and Atlanta hiring, but the Dallas Symphony Orchestra has yet to name a replacement for van Zweden, who is wrapping up his decadelong tenure to move to New York. And the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has yet to say who will replace Leonard Slatkin, who is in his 10th and final season.
— In the Pit
Nézet-Séguin will take over the Met in 2020. Two other major U.S. opera companies are looking: The San Francisco Opera is seeking a successor for Nicola Luisotti, who conducted his final performance as music director there in October. And the Washington National Opera is looking for a replacement for Philippe Auguin.
James Conlon, at the Los Angeles Opera since 2006, has a contract through the 2020-21 season. Emmanuel Villaume was named music director of the Dallas Opera in 2013, with a contract that goes through June 2022.
The Lyric Opera of Chicago still has its inaugural music director: Andrew Davis, who became the first conductor to hold that position at the company in 2000, and whose current contract lasts through 2021. And Patrick Summers — who has been the music director of Houston Grand Opera since 1998 and its artistic director since 2011 — is scheduled to remain until at least, yes, 2026.
