Alan Gilbert

Since 2019, Alan Gilbert has been Chief Conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, which he was closely associated with as First Guest Conductor from 2004 to 2015. His tenure, extended till 2029, has been distinguished by adventurous programming, thought-provoking festivals, and regular online streams. Highlights of the 2024/25 season included performances of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder and Berg’s Wozzeck, the second edition of the Elbphilharmonie Visions — a biennale for contemporary music initiated by Gilbert — a European tour with Yefim Bronfman, and season- closing concerts with Yo-Yo Ma and Kayhan Kalhor. Gilbert and his musicians opened the current season with Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony — an important work in the orchestra’s history, as it celebrates its 80th anniversary in 2025. The program also features, among others, Dvořák’s Seventh, Brahms’s Second, and Beethoven’s Third Symphony, a concert performance of Strauss’s Elektra, as well as a major anniversary tour of Asia together with Joshua Bell. Since 2021, Gilbert has also served as Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera, alongside his position in Hamburg. In 2022, he was appointed Court Kapellmeister by the King of Sweden. In the 2025/26 season he will conduct Dvořák’s Rusalka and Mozart’s The Magic Flute, as well as the jubilee concert celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Royal Court Orchestra. In addition, he is Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served as Chief Conductor for eight years. His eight-year tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic concluded in 2017 — an era already described as legendary, during which the New York native succeeded in setting new standards in the cultural life of the United States. As a sought-after guest conductor, Gilbert regularly returns to the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, London Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris. In the 2025/26 season, he will appear with the Staatskapelle Berlin, conduct Mahler’s First Symphony with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and present Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. A passionate interpreter of opera, Gilbert has led productions at La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Los Angeles Opera, Zurich Opera House, and Santa Fe Opera, where he was the company’s first Music Director. The recipient of numerous awards and honorary doctorates, Gilbert won a Grammy Award for the recording of his Met debut with John Adams’s Doctor Atomic.