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Conductor Cristian Macelaru Announces 2024-2025 Season Highlights

September 4, 2024 | By Katy Salomon

Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations
katy@primoartists.com | 646.801.9406

Conductor Cristian Macelaru Announces
2024-2025 Season Highlights

Featured as Music Director Designate of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Inaugural Competition as Artistic Director of George Enescu Festival & Competition

Final Season as Chief Conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne before
Taking on the Role of Artistic Partner in the 2025-2026 Season

Leading the Orchestre National de France as Music Director,
Including Tours of France, Germany, South Korea and China

Debuts with the Oslo Philharmonic and RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin

European Returns Include the Wiener Symphoniker, Gewandhausorchester,
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Barcelona Symphony,
Dresden Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester,
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich

U.S. Returns with St. Louis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra,
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra

Music Director at Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music,
Interlochen Center for the Arts and
George Enescu International Festival and Competition

“Macelaru strikes an ideal balance between energy and refinement.” – The Classic Review

www.macelaru.com

New York, NY (September 4, 2024) – With work declared a “master class” and delivered “with close attention and sharp intuition” (The Washington Post), GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor Cristian Macelaru begins his 2024-2025 season in the newly appointed role of Music Director Designate of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, among numerous other titled and guest engagements. With Romania’s George Enescu Festival & Competition, where he serves as Artistic Director, he leads the first competition of his tenure, bringing together outstanding young musicians from more than 20 countries. As Music Director of Orchestre National de France, he leads the orchestra on tours of China and South Korea, as well as venues across France and Germany. At WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne, he takes on his final season as Chief Conductor before shifting to the role of Artistic Partner for the 2025-2026 season. His guest dates around Europe include debuts with Oslo Philharmonic and RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin, as well as returns to Wiener Symphoniker, Gewandhausorchester, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Barcelona Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.

In the United States, Macelaru leads the St. Louis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra. He also serves as Music Director and Conductor for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor with Interlochen Center for the Arts’ World Youth Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director for the George Enescu Festival and Competition. In his most recent appointment, Macelaru has been named by Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music to serve as Distinguished Visiting Artist from the 2025/2026 season through 2027/2028.

Macelaru begins his season with the George Enescu International Competition, held August 31 – September 27, 2024, which he leads in his role as Artistic Director of both the Competition and the George Enescu International Festival, two halves of a key Romanian cultural initiative. During this year’s competition, Macelaru leads a Masterclass of Conducting, Instrumental Performance and Advanced Music Study in which top participants will be selected to conduct portions of the competition’s closing concert – where Macelaru himself conducts the Romanian Youth Orchestra.

Following a performance at the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics, Macelaru commenced his season with Orchestre National de France on August 31, 2024 at Austria’s Grafenegg Festival, leading a program featuring cello soloist Gautier Capuçon. For three dates in September, he conducts the orchestra in a program highlighting Brahms’ Violin Concerto, featuring soloist Julia Fischer. Performances will be held at Maison de la Radio et de la Musique in Paris on September 12, 2024, Opéra de Dijon on September 13, 2024 and Théâtre Ledoux in Besançon for the Festival International de Musique - Besançon Franche-Comté on September 14, 2024. Macelaru goes on to lead Orchestre National de France in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection” on October 24 and 25, 2024 at Maison de la Radio et de la Musique. He conducts the orchestra in a program highlighting Dukas’ The Sorcerer's Apprentice, featuring pianist Beatrice Rana, with performances in Paris on November 28, 2024, Hamburg on December 2, 2024, Frankfurt on December 4, 2024, Cologne on December 5, 2024 and Stuttgart on December 6, 2024.

Macelaru conducts a New Year’s Eve concert on December 30 and 31, 2024, as Orchestre National de France is joined by the Janoska Ensemble in a program featuring works by Brahms, Kodály and Johann Strauss II. From January 6 to 10, 2025, he leads the two ensembles in a Grand Tour of the same program, with performances in the French cities of Châteauroux, Bourges, Chalon-sur-Saône, Grenoble and Vichy. Macelaru goes on to lead Orchestre National de France in a tour celebrating Ravel’s 150th birthday from February 28, 2025 to March 13, 2025. The tour first brings Macelaru and the orchestra to the Paris Philharmonie on February 28, 2025 for a program featuring pianist Alexandre Tharaud, followed by an appearance at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on Wednesday March 5, 2025 featuring violinist Sarah Nemtanu and contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux. They return to Maison de la Radio et de la Musique on March 6, 2025 for a program with French actor/comedian Laurent Stocker, and on March 13, 2025 for a performance featuring pianist Beatrice Rana. On April 24, 2025, Macelaru conducts Orchestre National de France in a concert highlighting Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition at Maison de la Radio et de la Musique.

From April 29 to May 2, 2025, Macelaru leads Orchestre National de France in a series of performances at Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, South Korea, conducting a program of works by Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Mussorgsky, with soloist Alexander Kantorow featured on Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. He and the orchestra continue to Beijing, China for performances at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on May 5, 2025 to May 6, 2025, reprising their program from Seoul with pianist Bruce Liu featured on Ravel’s Concerto in G.

Macelaru returns to Paris in the summer to lead Orchestre National de France in Bastille Day concerts from July 14 to July 23, 2025.

With WDR Sinfonieorchester, Macelaru leads the season-opening concert on Saturday, September 21, 2024 at Kölner Philharmonie, featuring the German premiere of Karim Al-Zand’s new work premiered by WDR and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. He returns for performances on November 1 and 2, 2024 with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, Knaben und Mädchen der Kölner Dommusik and Damen des WDR Rundfunkchores. On November 15, 2024, Macelaru leads the orchestra in a performance with pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, who is featured on concertos by Brahms and Bartók. In the new year, Macelaru conducts WDR Sinfonieorchester in the world premiere of the Marsalis Concerto for Orchestra on January 31 and February 1, 2025.

Macelaru returns to WDR Sinfonieorchester for a performance on March 28, 2025 featuring violinist Daniel Lozakovich. He goes on to lead the orchestra in the Federal President’s charity concert, Benefizkonzert des Bundespräsidenten, on April 13, 2025, featuring a program of works by Enescu, Korngold, Ravel and Bernstein with soprano Fatma Said and cellist Maximilian Hornung. The event will also be presented via live stream from Cologne. On May 23, 2025 and May 24, 2025, Macelaru’s conducts WDR Sinfonieorchester in a program featuring Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, with performances by mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, tenor Allan Clayton, bass-baritone Derek Welton and the Rundfunkchor Berlin and WDR Rundfunkchor. On June 27, 2025, Macelaru leads his final concert this season with WDR Sinfonieorchester, featuring violinist Hilary Hahn on Brahms’ Concerto in D major.

Macelaru debuts with the Oslo Philharmonic in concerts on October 10 and 11, 2024 at the Oslo Concert Hall in Norway. In this program featuring baritone Jóhann Kristinsson, soprano Sally Matthews, mezzo-soprano Ingeborg Gillebo and choir conductor Øystein Fevang, Macelaru conducts a performance of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5.

In his second European debut, Macelaru leads RAI National Symphony Orchestra on December 13, 2024 at the RAI Auditorium in Turin, Italy. Featuring violinist Sergey Khachatryan, the program comprises Aram Ilyich Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D minor and Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7.

Among his European returns, Macelaru appears at Barcelona Symphony Orchestra for concerts on November 8 and 9, 2024 at L’Auditori, featuring violinist Alexandra Conunova in a performance of Bartók’s The Wooden Prince. Macelaru then leads Wiener Symphoniker in concerts on December 19 and 20, 2024 at Vienna Musikverein, featuring violinist Augustin Hadelich in a program of Tchaikovsky and Dvorák. On January 18 and 19, 2025, Macelaru conducts the Dresden Philharmonic at Kulturpalast Dresden in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6.

On January 23 and 24, 2025, Macelaru conducts a program in the series of “Großes Concerts“ (“Great Concerts“) performed by the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig, Germany with pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. He then returns to the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra with concerts on March 20 and 21, 2025, featuring Rudolf Buchbinder on piano for Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé. On April 25, 2025, he conducts Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in a program spotlighting soloist Isabelle Faust on Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in C sharp minor, paired in this program with works by Brahms and Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté. Macelaru’s final European guest appearance of the season will be with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in a performance of Bartók’s The Wooden Prince with violinist Augustin Hadelich on May 14 and 15, 2025.

In the first of his U.S. engagements, Macelaru conducts at the St. Louis Symphony on October 4 and 6, 2024 at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, featuring works by Ginastera and Dvorák paired with a piece by Gabriela Lena Frank. He begins his tenure as Music Director Designate of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with concerts on February 8 and 9, 2025, featuring violinist Randall Goosby in a program including Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World. Macelaru appears with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to lead concerts on February 13 and 15, 2025 at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and on February 16, 2025 at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, all featuring pianist Simon Trpceski in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Stravinsky’s Symphony in C. Additionally, Macelaru conducts the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in concerts on May 30 and 31 and June 1, 2025 at Heinz Hall, featuring Brahms’ Symphony No. 4. and Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto with soloist Nemanja Radulovic. Concluding his U.S. engagements, Macelaru leads the Minnesota Orchestra in concerts on June 5 and 6, 2025, featuring Principal Bassoon Fei Xie on Jolivet’s Bassoon Concerto, paired with Wynton Marsalis’ Blues Symphony and Enescu’s Symphony No. 1.

Cristian Macelaru 2024-2025 Season Calendar

August 31 – September 27, 2024
George Enescu International Competition
National University of Music & Romanian Athenaeum | Bucharest, Romania
Link: concurs.festivalenescu.ro/

September 12, 2024 at 8:00pm
Orchestre National de France presents Brahms, Violin Concerto
Maison de la Radio et de la Musique | Paris, France
Tickets: From €10 to €67
Link: www.maisondelaradioetdelamusique.fr/evenement/brahms-concerto-pour-violon?s=746619

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Julia Fischer, violin
Orchestre National de France

Program:
Elsa Barraine – Symphony No. 2
Johannes Brahms – Violin Concerto
Claude Debussy – Images for orchestra

September 13, 2024 at 8:00pm
Orchestre National de France presents Brahms, Violin Concerto
Opéra de Dijon | Dijon, France
Tickets: From €10 to €67
Link: www.maisondelaradioetdelamusique.fr/evenement/grand-tour-du-national-dijon?s=772078

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Julia Fischer, violin
Orchestre National de France

Program:
Elsa Barraine – Symphony No. 2
Johannes Brahms – Violin Concerto
Claude Debussy – Images for orchestra

September 14, 2024 at 8:00pm
Orchestre National de France presents Brahms, Violin Concerto
Théâtre Ledoux | Besançon, France
Tickets: From €10 to €67
Link: www.maisondelaradioetdelamusique.fr/evenement/brahms-concerto-pour-violon?s=746619#content-page

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Julia Fischer, violin
Orchestre National de France

Program:
Elsa Barraine – Symphony No. 2
Johannes Brahms – Violin Concerto
Claude Debussy – Images for orchestra

September 21, 2024 at 8:00pm
WDR Sinfonieorchester presents Klangzauber
Kölner Philharmonie | Cologne, Germany
Tickets: From 12,00 € to 64,00 €
Link: www1.wdr.de/orchester-und-chor/sinfonieorchester/konzerte/termine/klangzauber-100.html

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Miriam Khalil, soprano
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello
WDR Sinfonieorchester

Program:
Karim Al-Zand – Al Hakawati [Composition commission by WDR and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music] [German premiere]
Dmitri Shostakovich – Concerto No. 1 in E flat major for violoncello and orchestra op. 107
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Sheherazade op. 35

October 4, 2024 at 10:30am | October 6 at 3:00pm
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra presents Ginastera and Dvorák: From Argentina to Bohemia
Touhill Performing Arts Center | St. Louis, MO
Tickets: From $20 to $68
Link: https://shop.slso.org/8087

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Program:
Antonín Dvorák – Carnival Overture
Gabriela Lena Frank – Concertino Cusqueño
Alberto Ginastera – Variaciones concertantes
Antonín Dvorák – Symphony No. 6

October 10-11, 2024 at 7:00pm
Oslo Philharmonic Choir performs Stabat Mater
Oslo Concert Hall | Oslo, Norway
Tickets: Adult: 185 - 610 NOK | Senior: 195 - 490 NOK | Student: 185 - 305 NOK | Child: 150 NOK
Link: https://ofo.no/en/concerts/2024-10-10/oslo-filharmoniske-kor-synger-stabat-mater

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Jóhann Kristinsson, baritone
Sally Matthews, soprano
Ingeborg Gillebo, mezzo-soprano
Øystein Fevang, choir conductor
Oslo Philharmonic Choir

Program:
Karol Szymanowski – Stabat Mater
Sergei Prokofiev – Symphony No. 5

October 24, 2024 at 8:00pm
Orchestre National de France presents Mahler, Symphonie No. 2
Maison de la Radio et de la Musique | Paris, France
Tickets: From €10 to €67
Link: www.maisondelaradioetdelamusique.fr/evenement/mahler-symphonie-ndeg2-cristian-macelaru?s=747148

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, soprano
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
Lionel Sow, choirmaster
Orchestre National de France

Program:
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”

November 1-2, 2024 at 8:00pm
WDR Sinfonieorchester presents Klangzauber
Kölner Philharmonie | Cologne, Germany
Tickets: From 12,00 € to 64,00 €
Link: www1.wdr.de/orchester-und-chor/sinfonieorchester/konzerte/termine/ewigkeit-100.html

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Knaben und Mädchen der Kölner Dommusik
Damen des WDR Rundfunkchores
WDR Sinfonieorchester

Program:
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 3 in D minor

November 8-9, 2024 at 7:00pm
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra presents The Wooden Prince
L’Auditori | Barcelona, Spain
Tickets: From €25
Link: www.auditori.cat/en/event-2/concert-obc-wooden-prince/

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Alexandra Conunova, violin
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC)

Program:
Max Bruch – Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (1864-1866) 24′
Béla Bartók – The Wooden Prince, Op. 13, Sz. 60 (1914-1916) 55′

November 15, 2024 at 8:00pm
WDR Sinfonieorchester presents Life Paths – Buchbinder & Bartók
Kölner Philharmonie | Cologne, Germany
Tickets: From 6,00 € to 64,00 €
Link: www1.wdr.de/orchester-und-chor/sinfonieorchester/konzerte/termine/lebenswege-104.html

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Rudolf Buchbinder, piano
WDR Sinfonieorchester

Program:
Johannes Brahms – Concerto No. 1 in D minor for piano and orchestra op. 15
Béla Bartók – Concerto for orchestra

November 28, 2024 at 8:00pm
Orchestre National de France presents Dukas, The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Maison de la Radio et de la Musique – Auditorium | Paris, France
Link: www.maisondelaradioetdelamusique.fr/evenement/dukas-lapprenti-sorcier-beatrice-rana-cristian-macelaru?s=747297

Cristian Macelaru, conductor
Beatrice Rana, piano
Lucile Dollat, organ
Orchestre National de France