Andris Nelsons

Andris Nelsons conducts with energy and passion, a master of lyrical expression, orchestral detail, and warm, blended sonority. He was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1978 and initially trained as a trumpeter, playing with the Latvian National Opera before becoming the company’s music director in 2003. He rose to international prominence when he was appointed music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, aged just 30. Nelsons has pursued parallel careers in the opera house and concert hall. In opera, he is particularly associated with the music of Richard Wagner, and opened the Bayreuth Festival to great acclaim in 2010 with a new production of Lohengrin. In 2014 he was named music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and in 2017 also became Kapellmeister of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. The two appointments have resulted in a series of acclaimed recordings for Deutsche Grammophon of repertoire well suited to Nelsons’ interpretive approach: Brahms and Shostakovich symphony cycles with Boston, a Bruckner cycle with Leipzig, and Richard Strauss tone poems with both orchestras. Besides his affinity with such mighty orchestral canvases, Nelsons has a lighter side, as demonstrated by his New Year’s Day Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic in 2020 (recorded by Sony).