“Israeli conductor Lahav Shani, 27, is to be the next chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, taking over from Yannick Nézet-Séguin as of Sept. 2018,” writes Susan Elliott on Wednesday (8/24) at musicalamerica.com (subscription required). “The news follows just two months after [Shani’s] debut with the orchestra, as both conductor and piano soloist. He has signed a five-year agreement that commits him to 12 weeks per season. His first event in the position will be the 2018 New Year’s concert, launching the orchestra’s 100th anniversary. Shani will be just 29, the orchestra’s youngest ever chief conductor; Nézet-Séguin was 33 when he began his tenure and Valery Gergiev was 36 when he became principal guest. Rotterdam [Philharmonic] CEO George Wiegel noted that the orchestra was ‘unanimously enthusiastic’ about Shani and ‘so in tune with his way of making music: adventurous, with great devotion and intensely expressive.’ ” Trained in Berlin, Shani “won the 2013 International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition and has since mounted the podiums of the Israel, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Vienna philharmonics, as well as the Staatskapelle Berlin. As of fall 2017 he becomes principal guest conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.”
Posted August 25, 2016
