Alan Gilbert — Conductor & Violinist

Alan Gilbert is an internationally acclaimed conductor and violinist, currently serving as Chief Conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg (since 2019) and Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera (since 2021). He is also Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. His contract with the NDR has been extended through the 2028–29 season, reflecting the artistic growth he has inspired through adventurous programming, thought-provoking festivals, and extensive streaming initiatives.

From 2009 to 2017, Mr. Gilbert was the first native New Yorker to serve as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, where his transformative tenure expanded the definition of the symphonic concert experience. He launched the CONTACT! series and the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, unveiling nearly 100 world premieres, and led acclaimed staged productions including Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, and Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake. His recording of Nielsen’s symphonies with the Philharmonic was widely praised, and his leadership was described by The New Yorker as “an indelible mark on the orchestra’s history and that of the city itself.”

Mr. Gilbert appears regularly with the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Cleveland, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris. His operatic credits include productions at La Scala, The Metropolitan Opera, Zurich Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera, where he was the inaugural Music Director. In recent seasons, he has led new productions of Elektra and Parsifal at the Royal Swedish Opera, Moses und Aron at the Dresden Semperoper, and Porgy and Bess and Die tote Stadt at La Scala.

A Grammy Award winner, Mr. Gilbert has also received two Emmy Award nominations for music direction on PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center. He served as Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School from 2011 to 2018 and was the first holder of the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. He has been honored with Doctor of Music degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and Westminster Choir College, Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award, election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the distinction of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. In 2022, he was appointed Royal Court Kapellmeister by the King of Sweden.