entertainment
Boston will have the vacant third place among the major American orchestras.
Latvian conductor Andris Nilsson conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during a rehearsal of a traditional New Year’s concert in the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein, in Vienna, Austria, Monday, December 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File) AP
Andris Nilsson will be forced to leave his position as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the summer of 2027 after 13 seasons.
The orchestra made an unusually frank announcement on Friday.
“The decision not to renew his contract was made by the BSO Board of Trustees because, in addition to our shared desire to ensure that our orchestra continues to perform at the highest levels, the BSO and Andris Nelsons did not agree on the future vision,” the BSO said in a statement from its trustees and CEO Chad Smith.
Nelson, 47, a five-time Grammy Award winner, is currently leading the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on a US tour and was scheduled to conduct the orchestra in Naples, Florida, on Friday evening.
“Although this was not the decision I expected or wanted, I am firmly committed to you and to our work together,” Nelson wrote in a letter to BSO musicians and staff released by his management agency. “I understand that the decision was not related to artistic standards, performances or achievements during my tenure, and therefore my focus is clear and direct: to protect the music, support the stability of the orchestra, and continue to perform with BSO musicians at the highest artistic level.”
Nelson made his BSO debut in March 2011 at New York’s Carnegie Hall as a replacement for James Levine, who had announced 10 days earlier that he would step down as BSO music director at the end of the 2010–11 season due to ill health.
Nelson was announced as music director in May 2013 and given a five-year contract beginning with the 2014-15 season. The orchestra announced contract extensions in 2015 and 2020, then said in January 2024 that it had secured an evergreen contract. He was given the additional title of Head of Administration at Tanglewood, the music and educational center that is the orchestra’s summer home.
The latest extension was announced just months after Smith, who had been with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, began serving as CEO of the BSO.
Nelson was music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Britain from 2008-2009 and has been principal conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Germany since the 2017-18 season. He married soprano Christine Opolais in 2011, and in 2018 they announced their divorce.
Boston will have the vacant third place among the major American orchestras. Gustavo Dudamel will leave the Los Angeles Philharmonic this summer after 17 seasons to become music director of the New York Philharmonic and Franz Welser-Möst will leave the Cleveland Orchestra at the end of the 2026-2027 season after 25 seasons.
In addition, Klaus Makela takes the helm of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2027 to 2028, where he also begins as principal conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Netherlands.