Andris Nelsons

Source: kdschmid.de

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 sought-after conductors in the world today.
Nelsons’ positions in Boston and Leipzig commenced in the 2014/15 season and February 2018, respectively. In Autumn 2019, Nelsons, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig came together for three joint performances at Boston’s Symphony Hall. This ground-breaking alliance has since led to co-commissions, musician exchanges, and educational collaborations. In May 2025, the partnership will celebrate a further milestone when the Boston Symphony Orchestra joins the Gewandhausorchester for the Shostakovich Festival Leipzig, a comprehensive and globally unique celebration of the composer’s music, marking the 50th anniversary of his death. Nelsons will conduct two performances of “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” and all major Shostakovich symphonies, including a joint performance of the “Leningrad” Symphony No. 7, featuring musicians from both orchestras. As part of the festival, Nelsons will also conduct the newly created Festival Orchestra made up of young musicians from the Mendelssohn-Akademie Leipzig and the Tanglewood Music Center, an educational institution which Nelsons has been leading as Head of Conducting since 2024.
Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig will begin their 2024/25 season with a European tour, returning, among others, to the Lucerne Festival, and culminating in the season opening at the Gewandhaus. A further tour in February and March 2025 will feature celebrated soloist duo Lucas & Arthur Jussen in concerts across Europe. Nelsons will conduct contemporary works by Gewandhauskomponist Thomas Adès, as well as new commissions by the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural composer chair, Carlos Simon. The season in Boston, which marks Nelsons’ 10th anniversary as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will include a complete Beethoven symphony cycle, a residency at Carnegie Hall in New York, and a European tour to Riga, Vienna, Prague and Leipzig with all-Shostakovich programmes. Nelsons will also resume his guest appearances, including a four-week Asia tour with the Wiener Philharmoniker, consisting of 22 concerts in 10 cities across South Korea, China, and Japan. The tour will also feature several world-renowned soloists – including frequent collaborator Seong-Jin Cho. Andris Nelsons will further mark his return to the Berliner Philharmoniker in December with performances of Bruckner’s eighth symphony.
Andris Nelsons is an exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon, a partnership which has resulted in various 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” – a cycle which has garnered four GRAMMY awards in the categories Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Album. Furthermore, Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig recently concluded a critically acclaimed Bruckner symphonic cycle in celebration of the composer’s 200th birthday. Nelsons’ recordings of Beethoven’s complete symphonies with the Wiener Philharmoniker were released in October 2019. As part of the alliance between the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Deutsche Grammophon produced a celebrated 2022 release of Richard Strauss’ major symphonic works performed by both orchestras.
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.