GR Symphony Renews Music Director Marcelo Lehninger's Contract For 5 Years

Grand Rapids Symphony Music Director Marcelo Lehninger will remain at the helm of West Michigan's largest performing arts organization for another five years.

The Grand Rapids Symphony announced today that it has renewed Lehninger's 5-year contract with the orchestra, due to expire at the end of the 2020-21 season, for an additional five years through the 2025-26 season. That means the Brazilian-born conductor, who was appointed Music Director in June 2016, is on the road to becoming the third-longest serving Music Director in the organization's history.

Lehninger, who served five years on the conducting staff of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and who has guest conducted the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Houston and Detroit, has emerged as one of the top American conductors of his generation.

Grand Rapids Symphony is fortunate to have Lehninger on the podium in West Michigan, said Chuck Frayer, chair of the Grand Rapids Symphony's Board of Directors.

"A great community deserves a great orchestra, and a great orchestra needs the capable and inspiring leadership of a great music director," Frayer said. "Since Marcelo's arrival, he's raised the quality of the orchestra's music making and elevated the profile of the Grand Rapids Symphony in the world of classical music. We couldn't be more pleased with what he's accomplished, and we're looking for more to come."

Lehninger, who led the Grand Rapids Symphony and Symphony Chorus in a critically acclaimed appearance in New York City's Carnegie Hall in April 2018, said he's thrilled to continue making music in Grand Rapids.

"I am deeply humbled by the confidence shown me and for the past three years it has been an honor to work with the wonderful musicians of the orchestra, administration, board, donors and volunteers of this cherished cultural institution," said Lehninger, whose chair as Music Director is underwritten by George H. and Barbara A. Gordon. "The Grand Rapids Symphony has a big impact on the vibrant cultural life of our city, and it's been extremely inspiring for me to see the community support and involvement that shows the city wants to have a high-level orchestra."

"The community has been extremely welcoming to my family, and we're very happy here," he added. "Grand Rapids is a wonderful place to live, work and raise children."

Now in his fourth season with the orchestra, Lehninger has brought such internationally acclaimed artists as pianists Nelson Freire, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Olga Kern and Gabriela Montero to Grand Rapids for their debut performances. He's also brought such world-class musicians as violinist Sarah Chang and mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung back to DeVos Performance Hall for the first time in many years.

Last year, Lehninger conducted the Grand Rapids Symphony in performances of Gustav Holst's The Planets along with Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony No. 41, which sold out 2,400-seat DeVos Performance Hall. This past summer, he led the orchestra in its first appearance in northern Michigan in many years when the Grand Rapids Symphony performed at the Great Lakes Center for the Arts at Bay Harbor in July.

Under Lehninger's leadership, the Grand Rapids Symphony last year launched a Neighborhood Concert Series with performances throughout the community. In September, Lehninger led the orchestra in its second annual "Symphony on the West Side" in John Ball Park for the series underwritten by the Wege Foundation.

Lehninger has led performances of music ranging from Richard Strauss' epic tone poem Ein Heldenleben and Gustav Mahler's sunny Symphony No. 3 to Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's sultry Scheherazade, and Maurice Ravel's mesmerizing Bolero. But he also has premiered new music by composers with direct ties to West Michigan including Alexander Miller and Jeremy Crosmer.

"Marcelo is a magnificent musician who is grounded in the great works of classical music that our audiences know and love. But he's also an innovator, determined to expand the repertoire, to perform in unexpected ways and places, and to create inclusive experiences for new audiences," said GRS President and CEO Mary Tuuk, who earlier served as co-chair of the 14-member search committee who recommended Lehninger's appointment as Music Director. "I'm elated to continue working with Marcelo and our Symphony constituencies as we chart the course of the Symphony's future with further artistic excellence, vibrancy and accessibility."

Over the past three seasons, Lehninger has welcomed the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus for highly popular performances of Verdi's Requiem, Mozart's "Great" Mass in C, and Beethoven's "Choral" Symphony No. 9. From 2017 to 2019, Lehninger devoted one concert each season entirely to the music of Tchaikovsky including his Piano Concerto No. 1 with Gabriela Montero, his Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, and his "Pathetique" Symphony No. 6.

Grand Rapids Symphony's musicians are looking forward to many more years of making music with Lehninger, said Principal Harpist Elizabeth Wooster Colpean, who serves as chairperson of the GRS Orchestra Committee.

"The musicians of the Grand Rapids Symphony are thrilled that Marcelo will continue to serve as Music Director," said Colpean, who is in her 20th anniversary season with the orchestra. "He has an extraordinary gift of breathing life into each note we play, resulting in a beautiful picture created entirely out of music."

"It's magical!" she added. "We're fortunate to have him here in West Michigan."

As part of the Grand Rapids Symphony's 90th anniversary season in 2019-20, Lehninger will conduct the orchestra in all five of Beethoven's Concertos for Piano and Orchestra over two consecutive nights in March 2020. Pianist Kirill Gerstein, winner of the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award given by the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, will be soloist for all five.

Also later this season, the Grand Rapids Symphony will launch a new series, The Pianists, featuring Argentinean pianist Ingrid Fliter, the winner of the 2006 Gilmore Artist Award, as part of the 2020 Gilmore Keyboard Festival.

"When planning the 90th season, we decided that, although this anniversary is a wonderful reason to celebrate, from now on, each year will be a stepping stone to our centennial celebration in the 2029-30 season," Lehninger said. "Another five years will give us time to implement some of the projects and ideas I've been cultivating with our team. The future holds some innovative and novel plans for the orchestra, and I am truly excited to be a part of this vision."

As Music Director, Marcelo Lehninger - pronounced "Mar-SEL-o, LEN-in-ger" (with a hard "g) - oversees all artistic matters for the Grand Rapids Symphony, which presents 40 weeks' worth of concerts annually and operates on a budget of $10 million. Lehninger conducts most concerts on the Richard and Helen DeVos Classical Series and at least two on the Holland Home Great Eras Series. He has led the Grand Rapids Pops for the D&W Fresh Market Picnic Pops at Cannonsburg Ski Area.

Planning concerts, choosing repertoire, selecting guest artists, and auditioning musicians to fill vacancies within the orchestra are among the duties of an orchestra's artistic leader. Today's music director also is expected to play a role in audience development, outreach, fundraising, and collaboration beyond the concert hall.

Currently, Lehninger is working with the orchestra's staff to plan the Grand Rapids Symphony's 2020-21 season, which will be announced in February.

The son of two professional musicians, violinist Erich Lehninger, former concertmaster of the Sao Paulo Symphony, and pianist Sonia Goulart, a prominent South American soloist and teacher, Marcelo Lehninger is a graduate of the Conductors Institute at Bard College in New York and an alumnus of the National Conducting Institute.

While holding the posts of assistant and associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 2010 to 2015, he also served as assistant to Kurt Masur with the Orchestre National de France during a residency in Vienna and was selected as assistant and cover conductor for Mariss Jansons during the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra's 2014 tour of Europe. From 2012 to 2015, he was Music Director of the New West Symphony in Los Angeles.

Winner of the prestigious Helen M. Thompson Award for an Emerging Music Director by the League of American Orchestras in 2014, Lehninger made his Grand Rapids Symphony debut in February 2015 with an electrifying performance of Dvorak's "New World" Symphony No. 9. Following an explosive performance of Respighi's "Pines of Rome" in April 2016, Lehninger was the unanimous choice to become the orchestra's 14th Music Director since the ensemble was organized in 1930.

Elsewhere, Lehninger has guest conducted the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in Germany, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Orchestre National de France, and the Lucerne Symphony in Switzerland. He has made two appearances with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and toured in Australia with his friend and mentor pianist Nelson Freire in performances with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

In August, Lehninger conducted several concerts with two separate orchestras in Japan. Later this season he'll conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and return to Boston for the first time since 2015 to lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall.

Lehninger lives in Grand Rapids with his wife, Laura Krech, a Research Scientist at the Trauma Research Institute at Spectrum Health, and their daughters, Sofia and Camila.

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