Pass The Baton
- Marc Minkowski has been appointed Music Director of Boston Baroque, succeeding founder Martin Pearlman, who served the organisation for more than five decades. Born in Paris and a leading authority on early music, Minkowski founded the ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre at the age of 18 and was founder of the Festival Ré Majeure and a former Artistic Director of the Mozartwoche in Salzburg. He conducts regularly at major opera houses and with leading orchestras worldwide, and has built an acclaimed discography including a GRAMMY-nominated recording of Handel’s Hercules. Minkowski opens his tenure at Boston Baroque with Haydn’s The Seasons in September 2026. Filippo Ciabatti also joins the ensemble in the newly created role of Principal Guest Conductor.
- Alisa Meves has been appointed Artistic Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO), where she will oversee artistic planning for all BFO concerts in Hungary and internationally, working closely with Music Director Iván Fischer. Born and raised in Germany, Meves brings extensive experience in orchestral, operatic and ballet programming. From 2023 to 2025 she served as Artistic Director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and prior to that spent more than 25 years at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, where she worked closely with Valery Gergiev as Head of Planning across opera, ballet and concert activities.
- Huw Humphreys has been appointed Artistic Director and General Manager of the Czech Philharmonic, taking up the role in September 2026. Humphreys studied Musicology at Oxford before serving eight years at Askonas Holt, four years as General Manager of the European Union Youth Orchestra, and nine years as Director of Artistic Planning at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently served as Head of Music at the Barbican Centre from 2014 to 2022, responsible for classical and contemporary music programming. In his new role, he will oversee artistic planning in the Czech Republic and abroad, alongside recordings and audiovisual broadcasting, working with Music Director Semyon Bychkov and his successor, Jakub Hrůša.
- Nicholas Collon has renewed his contract as Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO) for a second time, extending his tenure until 2030 with an option for a further two years. Collon has held the post since autumn 2021. The FRSO and Collon open their 2026–27 season in August with Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre at the Helsinki Festival and the opening concert of the Berlin Musikfest, with the season also marking the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death and featuring composers Sofia Gubaidulina and Karol Szymanowski. Violist Antoine Tamestit is Artist-in-Residence for the season.
- Molly Turner has been appointed Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra for the 2026–27 season. She will conduct a range of performances in the role, including the 2027 Lunar New Year celebration, Young People’s Concerts and Symphony for the Cities performances, and will make her subscription debut with the orchestra in July 2027. The appointment builds on a close working relationship Turner has developed with the players over the past year.
- Jack Gonzalez-Harding and Nina Haug have been named Conducting Fellows of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester for the 2026–27 season. Both will assist Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert and guest conductors across a range of repertoire, join the orchestra on tour and make their conducting debuts with their own programmes. This season Gonzalez-Harding assisted Sir Simon Rattle with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic, and Thomas Adès with the London Symphony Orchestra. This summer he joins Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Assistant and Cover Conductor for Rossini’s Il turco in Italia. Swiss conductor Haug made her debuts with the Magdeburg Philharmonic, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra and Tapiola Sinfonietta in 2025–26, and was awarded second prize at the Siemens Hallé International Conducting Competition. She is currently a member of Norway’s elite Dirigentforum conducting programme.
- Rafael Payare has extended his tenure with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) for a further five years until 2032, taking on the new title of Music and Artistic Director. Payare, who succeeded Kent Nagano as the orchestra’s ninth Music Director in 2021, will dedicate 14 to 16 weeks per season to the OSM. During his tenure he has led four international tours, released four recordings on Pentatone including a critically acclaimed Mahler Fifth, and founded El Sistema OSM, bringing the Venezuelan music education model to young people in Montréal-Nord. The orchestra returns to Europe this summer, including a residency at the Edinburgh International Festival, and will tour Japan next season.
- Giedrė Šlekytė has been appointed Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), becoming Music Director Designate with immediate effect and taking up the full position from the 2027–28 season. The Lithuanian conductor made her RSNO debut this season and has since returned to record in Scotland. Resident in Austria, Šlekytė has served as Principal Conductor of Stadttheater Klagenfurt and Principal Guest Conductor of Bruckner Orchester Linz, and conducts regularly at major opera houses including the Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House and Staatsoper Berlin. She succeeds Thomas Søndergård, who becomes Music Director Emeritus.
- Olari Elts has been appointed Artistic Director of Sinfonietta Rīga, succeeding the orchestra’s founder Normunds Šnē, who hands over artistic leadership following the conclusion of the ensemble’s 20th anniversary season. The Estonian conductor takes on an orchestra widely regarded as one of the most significant musical ensembles in the Baltic region. Under his leadership, Sinfonietta Rīga will continue to pursue the artistic foundations established by Šnē, encompassing Baroque and Viennese Classical repertoire, 20th-century music, contemporary works and the promotion of new Latvian music.
- Elim Chan has been appointed Artistic Partner of the Wiener Symphoniker for the 2026–27 and 2027–28 seasons. The appointment deepens her relationship with the orchestra, which began when she first conducted them in November 2022, and follows her 2022–23 season as Portrait Artist at the Wiener Musikverein. In her first season as Artistic Partner, Chan will conduct programmes at both the Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein, and will lead the orchestra’s Wiener Advent concert at Vienna’s Stephansdom.
