New BSO contract for Andris Nelsons

Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has announced that music director Andris Nelsons’ contract will be extended through to 2022, following a successful first year at the orchestra’s helm.

In addition to Nelsons’ previous five-year contract now having become an eight-year deal, the new arrangement also includes an ‘evergreen clause’, which the BSO says ‘reflects a mutual desire for a long-term future together’. This indicates that some form of working relationship is likely to outlast the current contractual agreement, whether or not it is extended beyond 2022 in future.

Nelsons took on the title of BSO Music Director in September last year at age 35, becoming the youngest conductor to hold that title with the orchestra in more than a century, as well as the first Latvian-born conductor to assume the post.

Of the updated arrangement, the music director said: ‘I am so very honoured and incredibly excited by this new chapter in my musical life with the BSO. This is a significant opportunity for me and the orchestra to work together on deeper levels, artistically and musically.’

Managing director Mark Volpe added: ‘Andris’s magnificent musicianship, his extraordinary generosity of spirit, and his deeply felt enthusiasm for music and for life, have brought the BSO and its audiences a whole new level of appreciation for the transformative power of great music resulting from a partnership between conductor and orchestra that resounds so affirmatively on every level of interaction.’

During each year of the new contract, Nelsons will lead the BSO in a minimum of 12 weeks of programs at Symphony Hall, as well as several programs each season at Tanglewood, the orchestra’s summer music festival in western Massachusetts. Annual tours – including trips to Europe, Asia, and North America and beyond – are also planned for each season of Nelsons’ tenure.

Volpe also noted: ‘New projects with Deutsche Grammophon, Google Play, and Great Performances on PBS, and, through our own bso.org platform, a web cast of this summer’s Mahler 8 with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra—along with the upcoming tour to Europe, and subsequent tours planned for Europe, Asia, and North America—are reflective of the many opportunities that are sure to keep the BSO and its new music director in the vanguard of orchestras worldwide as they embark on an extraordinary musical journey together over the next seven years and beyond.’