Alan Gilbert

Conductor and violinist Alan Gilbert has championed a broad repertoire that includes much contemporary music in a career that spans orchestral posts in Europe and his native New York City. Gilbert (b. 1967) grew up around the New York Philharmonic, where his parents were violinists. He frequently guest conducted the orchestra before becoming its music director in 2009. He invigorated its programming, introducing semi-staged productions of Ligeti’s Le Grande Macabre and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, a “Philharmonic 360” program in the cavernous Park Avenue Armory, and a composer residency. He also recorded a cycle of Nielsen symphonies and concertos. A graduate of Harvard University, Gilbert studied conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, and further cultivated his tastes while chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (2000-08). In 2019, two years after leaving the New York Philharmonic, he became music director of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg, where he has continued to champion modern music.