The Boston Symphony Orchestra Reveals Contract Extension of Andris Nelsons, Plus More

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has made three major new announcements today. Andris Nelsons, who is currently in his tenth season as the Ray and Maria Stata Music Director will move to an evergreen, rolling contract, extending his tenure as Music Director; additionally, he has also been named Head of Conducting at Tanglewood. The BSO also announces Carlos Simon as its inaugural Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair, a three-season position in which the composer and educator will contribute several new works to the BSO's repertoire, work together with Nelsons to curate concert programs, and lead educational and outreach programs. Further establishing the BSO's status as an orchestra of ideas, and in reflection of the Boston community's longstanding status as a center of learning in the United States and the world at large, the BSO announces the establishment of a new Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities Institute where initiatives across the broad range of humanities disciplines will serve to contextualize and enhance the BSO's highly regarded musical programming.

 

Andris Nelsons

 

Andris Nelsons celebrates ten seasons at the helm of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) with a robust schedule of concerts at Symphony Hall, Tanglewood, and on tour, as well as an expanded commitment to educating the next generation of great conductors. Nelsons further reaffirms his role with the BSO by moving to a rolling, evergreen contract. In doing so, Nelsons extends his tenure as Music Director and adds a new title, Head of Conducting at Tanglewood, to reflect his deep commitment to the Tanglewood Music Center and the BSO's educational mission.

 

“It seems like just yesterday that I began my role as Music Director of the BSO,” says Andris Nelsons. “And yet, over the past ten years, the BSO has not only been a beloved orchestra, but my home. I am so thankful to the wonderful musicians, audiences, and communities here in Boston and the Berkshires, and look forward to strengthening and building on these relationships in the seasons to come. Furthermore, it will be an immense honor and privilege to connect with students and colleagues in my new role as Head of Conducting at Tanglewood. These first ten years have been wonderful, and I am excited for all we at the BSO are going to accomplish together in the future.”

 

“We are so pleased that Andris has agreed to extend his role as the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Music Director into the foreseeable future; this expresses our deep confidence in his artistic leadership,” says Chad Smith, the BSO Eunice and Julian Cohen President and Chief Executive Officer. “As an arts organization, we are laser-focused on how we can continue to serve Boston and the Berkshires, and on how we can extend our work into communities more broadly across the region. This is a creative orchestra, with extraordinarily talented people. Through his work as Music Director on stage and off, and now as Head of Conducting at Tanglewood, I know that Andris will continue to make the BSO healthy and vibrant for years to come.”

 

The fifteenth music director in the BSO's history, Nelsons made his debut with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall in March 2011, his Tanglewood debut in July 2012, and his Symphony Hall debut in January 2013. Since joining the BSO in the 2014–15 season, Nelsons has led the BSO in 350 concerts in Symphony Hall, 87 concerts at Tanglewood, on four European tours, and on two tours of Japan. Highlights from Nelsons' tenure include an ongoing focus on the works of Dmitri Shostakovich, including a GRAMMY Award-winning cycle of the composer's symphonies for Deutsche Grammophon; extensive transatlantic collaborations with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (GHO), of which he is Gewandhauskapellmeister; and an acclaimed series of programs at Carnegie Hall, among them audience-favorite concert performances of Elektra (2015), with Christine Goerke; Act II of Tristan und Isolde (2018), with Jonas Kaufmann; the sextet, intermezzo, and closing scene of Capriccio (2019), with Renée Fleming; Wozzeck (2022), with Christine Goerke and Bo Skovhus; and an upcoming performance of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with Kristine Opolais.

 

Composer Chair Carlos Simon

The BSO has announced Carlos Simon as its inaugural Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair. In this three-season position, commencing in the 2024–25 season, Simon Will provide one of the many throughlines in the organization: working together with BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons and President and CEO Chad Smith to animate the BSO programming, including new compositions, educational initiatives, artist-curated programs, and humanities programming presented in partnership with the newly-announced Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities Institute. This new position encompasses all areas of the Boston Symphony Orchestra organization, including the Boston Pops, the Tanglewood Festival, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Tanglewood Learning Institute.

“I couldn't be more excited to welcome Carlos Simon to the BSO as our Composer Chair, and I am so grateful to Debbie and Phil Edmundson for their very generous support that enabled us to create this new position,” says Chad Smith. “Carlos is not only an innovative composer, but an incredible curator and devoted educator who embodies a belief that the work we do should reflect not only the world and society we live in, but our aspirations for its future. In Carlos, we have one of America's leading composers with the ability to impact nearly everything we do at the BSO. I can't wait to see the vision that Carlos brings to our organization play out in the years ahead.”

“The BSO has a long history of music making and being the inaugural Composer Chair in its 140-year history is certainly a privilege,” says Carlos Simon, the Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair. “It's an honor that I don't take lightly, and I would like to use the opportunity to build on that history both through my music as well as through mentorship and education.”

The work of Carlos Simon has made several appearances on the BSO's programs over the years, beginning with a 2021 performance of his string quartet Warmth from Other Suns. His work Fate Now Conquers—composed as a companion to Beethoven's seventh symphony and incorporating the harmonic structure of that symphony's second movement—has been programmed on numerous occasions in Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood. The BSO commissioned and premiered Simon's Four Black American Dances in 2022; appearances on the 2023 Europe tour programs established the work as an international audience favorite. Acting as music director and keyboardist for Jennifer Holliday, Simon has also appeared as a performer with the Boston Pops.

Building on the BSO's longstanding reputation as a prolific commissioner and presenter of new music, Simon Will present several new BSO-commissioned works, including compositions for the BSO and Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and specially commissioned works to be performed by students at the Tanglewood Music Center. Simon's prolific catalogue of pre-existing work will also be programmed extensively, forming a compositional throughline in the BSO's performances in the coming seasons, both at home and on tour. Simon's works will also appear on programs performed by the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Simon has held the position of Composer-in-Residence at the Kennedy Center since 2021 and is Associate Professor of Music at Georgetown University; he has previously served as a member of the music faculty at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta. He will bring his background as an educator to the BSO, spearheading new educational programs in Boston and beyond. Among other activities, Simon Will work alongside the BSO's educational staff and artistic leadership to develop new and engaging programming; create signature digital educational projects to reach new audiences; teach and coach the Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center and create and present programs with the Tanglewood Learning Institute. Simon Will also work within the newly announced Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities Institute to assist in developing programs and collaborations that embrace a range of humanities focusses.

 

Simon Will work closely with Music Director Andris Nelsons in helping to shape the programming for upcoming seasons through several specially curated initiatives. These will focus on particular composers, musical genres, and multimedia programs from within and beyond the scope of the classical canon. Additionally, during his tenure with the BSO, Simon Will curate a Festival of Contemporary Music at the Tanglewood Music Center as the Merwin Geffen, M.D. and Norman Solomon, M.D. Festival of Contemporary Music Director.

 

Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities Institute

The Boston Symphony Orchestra announces the establishment of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities Institute. This initiative is inspired by the foundational work that began with the launch of the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) in 2019. Boston has long been a home of history-defining thinkers, highly respected colleges, universities, and conservatories, and world-class artistic institutions. For 142 years, the Boston Symphony Orchestra has occupied a central place in the city's cultural landscape, embodying the city's ideals of education, artistic achievement, and revolutionary spirit. The Humanities Institute builds on the BSO's history as an orchestra of ideas, augmenting the work of the TLI through collaborations with other organizations to strengthen community connections and welcome new audiences. The Humanities Institute will position the BSO as an aspirational model for an arts and service organization.

“The humanities allow us to understand ourselves better, understand each other better, and understand our world better,” says Chad Smith. “Our work at the BSO is already a part of the humanities, and the music that we play on our stages can be further informed by explorations of these related topics. With the launch of our new Humanities Institute, we invite scholars, artists, and activists to come and help us create throughlines in the works that we are performing, examining what connects this music with ideas and audiences of today.”

The Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities Institute will be jointly administered by a to-be-hired Director of Humanities and the Tanglewood Learning Institute, and a to-be-appointed Humanities Chair. Joining the Director and Chair will be two Humanities Fellows, who will reflect a diverse spectrum of disciplines, cultural backgrounds, and ideas. Over a two-year period, the Humanities Fellows will work together with the Director and Chair to support the BSO's programmatic, education, community engagement, and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives, all while creating signature capstone projects for their fellowship. Further details regarding the Humanities Institute's plans will be announced in the coming months.

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