“Adding a major European post to his conducting portfolio, Andris Nelsons will assume the music directorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra,” reports Jeremy Eichler in Wednesday’s (9/9) Boston Globe. “He takes up the prestigious position in the fall of 2017, and will hold it simultaneously with his position as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where his terms of commitment remain unchanged. … Along with news of the appointment, the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the BSO have also unveiled plans to embark on a rare cooperative alliance, which will involve joint commissions, musician exchanges, educational opportunities, and programming initiatives designed to spotlight each orchestra’s history and the common ties between them. The partnership will be launched informally in May, when the BSO performs in the Gewandhaus as part of its next European tour. In addition to co-commissions (the first of which will go to German composer Jörg Widmann), both orchestras will explore each other’s musical heritage through a ‘Leipzig Week in Boston’ and a ‘Boston Week in Leipzig.’ The partnership’s educational dimensions will include opportunities for conducting fellows at the Tanglewood Music Center to serve as assistant conductors to Nelsons in Leipzig. The Harvard scholar Christoph Wolff has been appointed as artistic adviser to the new alliance.”
Posted September 10, 2015
