Alan Gilbert Conductor

Music Director, New York PhilharmonicConductor Laureate, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic OrchestraPrincipal Guest Conductor, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg

Alan Gilbert became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2009, the first native New Yorker to hold the post, ushering in what the New York Times called “an adventurous new era” at the orchestra. In his inaugural season, he introduced several new initiatives, that include two new positions – the Marie-Josée Kravis composer-in-residence, held by Magnus Lindberg and the Mary and James G. Wallach artist-in-residence, to be held in 2010–11 by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter; an annual three-week festival, this season entitled Hungarian Echoes, led by Esa-Pekka Salonen; and CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic’s new-music series.

In the 2010–11 season, Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in a staged presentation of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, directed by Doug Fitch; Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 and Kindertotenlieder; the New York premiere of Thomas Adès’s In Seven Days; Mendelssohn’s Elijah; the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis’s a Voice, a Messenger (a New York Philharmonic commission);the New York premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s groundbreaking Kraft; and both programs in the orchestra’s CONTACT! series. Gilbert will also lead the orchestra in two tours of European music capitals; two performances at Carnegie Hall, including the venue’s 120th anniversary concert; and his second free Memorial Day Concert at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, with a program that includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”. He will also play viola with members of the orchestra in a late-season performance of Mozart’s String Quintet in D major, K.59.

In addition to a busy schedule of concerts with the New York Philharmonic this season, Gilbert will conduct several other leading orchestras at home and abroad, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and, for the first time, Rome's Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Gilbert’s inaugural season culminated in May 2010 with the presentation of three sold-out, fully staged performances at Avery Fisher Hall of György Ligeti’s opera, Le Grand Macabre, in a production that the New York Times hailed as “an instant Philharmonic milestone.” Other high points of the season were Asian Horizons, a major tour of Asia in October 2009, marked by the orchestra’s debut in Vietnam at the historic Hanoi Opera House; a nine-city European tour in February 2010; Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, coupled with the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s EXPO (a New York Philharmonic commission) in the season’s opening-night concert; Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, performed at the first subscription concerts of the season; an all-American New Year’s Eve concert; a performance at Carnegie Hall; two concerts in the CONTACT! series; an all-Mozart concert spotlighting principal players in the orchestra; and the season-end performances of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis. Gilbert also appeared with members of the orchestra as a violinist and violist, respectively, on two Saturday matinee performances of works by Schumann and Brahms.

In 2009 Gilbert became the first person to hold the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at the Juilliard School, a position that includes coaching, conducting, and hosting performance master classes; in this capacity he will conduct the Juilliard Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 in April 2011. In June 2008, Gilbert was named conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra following his final concert as chief conductor and artistic advisor. He has been principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra since 2004, and has conducted a host of other world-class orchestras, including the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras; and the Orchestre National de Lyon, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 2003 he was named the first music director of the Santa Fe Opera, a post he held until July 2006.

Gilbert studied at Harvard University, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Juilliard School. From 1995-1997 he was the assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. In November 2008 he made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. His recording of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award, and his recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. On May 15, 2010, the Curtis Institute of Music awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Music degree.

Date Last Edited: 2nd September 2010