Dudamel to become NY Philharmonic music director, leave LA
NEW YORK (AP) — Gustavo Dudamel will become music director of the New York Philharmonic for the 2026-27 season, ending a heralded tenure with the Los Angeles Philharmonic that began in 2009.
The 42-year-old Venezuelan conductor agreed to a five-year contract as New York’s artistic and music director, the orchestra announced Tuesday. Dudamel will become the first Latino to head the orchestra since its founding in 1842.
“What the orchestra told us very, very clearly was that the person that they wanted, their dream candidate, was Gustavo,” New York Philharmonic CEO Deborah Borda said. “When you’re trying to recruit the most sought-after conductor in the world, you don’t run a sort of classic search.”
Dudamel — who will hold the title of music director designate in 2025-26 — will also remain music director of the Paris Opera, a role he’s held since 2021, and of Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, a position he took in 1999 that gained him international recognition.
Dudamel, in a statement, cited the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca’s quote: “Every step we take on earth brings us to a new world.”
“I gaze with joy and excitement at the world that lies before me in New York City, and with pride and love at the world I have shared — and will continue to share — with my dear Angelenos over the next three seasons and beyond,” Dudamel said. “All of us are united in our belief that culture creates a better world, and in our dream that music is a fundamental right.”
Jaap van Zweden said in September 2021 that he would leave the New York Philharmonic after the 2023-24 season, a six-season tenure as music director that will be the shortest since Pierre Boulez succeeded Leonard Bernstein and led the orchestra from...