Performer: Andris Nelsons

Andris Nelsons

Andris Nelsons becomes the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Ray and Maria Stata Music Director in September 2014, following a year as Music Director Designate. In his first season as its fifteenth music director, he will lead the orchestra in ten programs at Symphony Hall, repeating three of them at Carnegie Hall in New York. He made his BSO debut in March 2011 at Carnegie Hall with Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, in place of James Levine, whom he succeeds as music director. He made his Tanglewood debut in July 2012—conducting both the BSO and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as part of Tanglewood’s 75th Anniversary Gala—and his Symphony Hall debut in January 2013. Maestro Nelsons’ Boston appointment affirms his place among today’s most sought-after conductors; he is acclaimed for his work in both concert and opera, with such distinguished institutions as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Vienna State Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Bayreuth Festival, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. His tenure since 2008 as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has encompassed major tours worldwide, as well as regular summer festival appearances, and an ongoing project to record the complete orchestral works of Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss for Orfeo International. He is also the subject of a recent DVD from Orfeo, a documentary film entitled “Andris Nelsons: Genius on Fire.”

Born in Riga, Latvia, in 1978 to a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra before studying conducting. Prior to his position with the CBSO, he was principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, from 2006 to 2009, and music director of the Latvian National Opera from 2003 to 2007.