The Gewandhausorchester of Leipzig has named Andris Nelsons as the new Gewandhauskapellmeister, succeeding Riccardo Chailly. Nelsons will take up his new role at the start of the 2017-18 season. Appointed Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra last year, Nelsons has already extended his relationship with the New England orchestra through to the 2021-22 season. 

Speaking of the appointment, Nelsons said ‘Being appointed as the next Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester is a completely overwhelming honour. This extraordinary orchestra and its wonderful musicians are unique in so many respects, and particularly in their creation of an exceptional sound world based on outstanding tradition that is, at its heart, inspirational.’ 

Andreas Schulz, the Leipzig orchestra’s General Director commented that ‘Andris Nelsons is a consummate magician of sound, and he belongs to the most interesting conductors of our time. I am so thankful that we have been successful in securing him for our orchestra and thus for the music city Leipzig. Together with him we will establish new exciting artistic standards which will apply both for the core repertoire of the Gewandhausorchester as well as for contemporary music.’ 

Nelsons first conducted the Gewandhausorchester in December 2011 and has subsequently performed with them in 2013 and 2014 and will work with them again next May and June. At 36, he will be the youngest conductor to hold the post in the orchestra’s long history, joining an illustrious roll-call that has included Mendelssohn, Carl Reinecke, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Franz Konwitschny, Vacláv Neumann, Kurt Masur and Herbert Blomstedt. A number of previous conductors have held positions in both Leipzig and Boston, including Wilhelm Gericke, Emil Pauer, Max Fiedler, Karl Muck, and most importantly, Arthur Nikisch, who were all educated in Leipzig. Charles Munch, who was Music Director of the Boston SO from 1949 to 1962 had been Concertmaster of the Gewandhausorchester in the 1920s.

The managers of both the Leipzig and Boston orchestras are also planning a strategic alliance that will embrace co-commissions as well as educational initiatives.