Conductor: Andris Nelsons

Andris Nelsons is Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and is the designated Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, with the appointment commencing in the 2017/18 season. With these positions, and in leading a pioneering alliance between these two esteemed institutions, Grammy Award winning Nelsons is firmly underlined as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today.

Nelsons made his Boston Symphony (BSO) debut in March 2011, leading Mahler’s Symphony no. 9 at Carnegie Hall. In summer 2012, Nelsons made his debut in Tanglewood, and in 2013 at Boston Symphony Hall. Nelsons began his tenure as Music Director of the BSO in the 2014/15 season and after one year his contract was extended through the 2021/22 season. In summer 2015 and spring 2016, the BSO and Nelsons embarked on their first European tours, receiving widespread critical acclaim. Nelsons gave his debut performance with the Gewandhausorchester with works by Richard Strauss, Beethoven and Sibelius in 2011, followed by regular performances at the Gewandhaus throughout the following years. In 2016/17 Nelsons returns to the Gewandhaus to conduct Beethoven 9 at the prestigious Silvesterkonzert performances and returns for a focused month of preview concerts with the Gewandhausorchester in May 2017 ahead of his inaugural season beginning.

In the 2016/2017 season, Nelsons is Artist in Residence at the Konzerthaus Dortmund and Nelsons continues collaborations with Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest and Philharmonia Orchestra. Nelsons is a regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Bayreuther Festspiele and in December 2016, he returns to the Royal Opera House conducting Rosenkavalier, in a new production directed by Robert Carsen.

Andris Nelsons and Deutsche Grammophon recently announced an exclusive audio agreement, representing a milestone in Nelsons’ recording profile, paving the way for three landmark projects. Nelsons and the BSO partner on recording the complete Shostakovich symphonies, and the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District, and already the first disc of this exciting collaboration received a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral performance. The second instalment of the cycle, a 2-album set with Shostakovich’s Symphony Nos. 5, 8, and 9 has just recently been released. Nelsons and the yellow label also embark upon a collaboration with the Gewandhausorchester that will shed new light on the symphonies of Bruckner, redefining Bruckner’s very distinctive sound world. In addition, Nelsons will record Beethoven’s complete symphonies with the Wiener Philharmoniker between 2016-2019, and Nelsons returns to perform the complete cycle in 2020, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Nelsons also has an exclusive audiovisual relationship with Unitel GmbH.

Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra before studying conducting. He was Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2008-2015, Principal Conductor of Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany 2006-2009 and Music Director of Latvian National Opera 2003-2007.

Wiener Philharmoniker, Austria

There is perhaps no other musical ensemble moreclosely associated with the history and traditionof European classical music than the Vienna Philharmonic.

Since i ts incept ion by Otto Nicolai in 1842,the fascination that the orchestra has held for prominent composers and conductors, as well as for audiences worldwide, is based not only on a homogenous musical style carefully bequeathed from one generation to the next, but also on its unique history and structure. The foremost ruling body of the organization is the orchestra itself.

In accordance with Philharmonic statutes, only a member of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra can become a member of the Vienna Philharmonic. Before joining the Philharmonic, one must first audition for a position with the State Opera Orchestra and then successfully complete a three year period before becoming eligible to submit an application for membership in the association of the Vienna Philharmonic.

The Vienna Philharmonic performs approximately 110 concerts every season at home, presents Vienna Philharmonic Weeks in New York and Japan, and has participated in the Salzburg Festival since 1922. The orchestra makes yearly guest appearances in leading concert halls and festivals worldwide, presents the New Year's Concert, which is broadcast in over 90 countries, and presents the free Summer Night Concert Sch?nbrunn, attracting up to 100,000 people annually.

In 2014, the VPO received the coveted Birgit Nilsson Prize for outstanding achievements and major contributions to the field of opera/concert, and the Herbert von Karajan Music Price 2014. Since 2008, Rolex is the Exclusive Sponsor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

For over a decade, the VPO has given benefit concer ts suppor ting humanitarian causes around the world. The musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic endeavor to implement the motto with which Ludwig van Beethoven prefaced his Missa solemnis: "From the heart, to the heart."