National Symphony taps Noseda

Gianandrea Noseda, music director of the Teatro Regio Torino opera company in Turin and principal guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, will take over direction of Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Christoph Eschenbach.

Noseda, currently conducting Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, will lead two NSO programs next season as music director-designate, and begin his tenure as music director in the 2017-18 season. His initial contract with the orchestra runs through 2020-21.

A 51-year-old native of Milan, Noseda served as chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester from 2002 to 2011 and principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg from 1997 to 2007. He is a prolific recording artist, notably of the “Musica Italiana” series of works by Italian composers for Chandos Records. He was named Conductor of the Year for 2015 by Musical America.

In his most recent date with the National Symphony last November, “we felt a mutual respect and commitment to music-making that is the foundation of a successful artistic partnership from the start of our initial rehearsal,” Noseda said in a statement released by the Kennedy Center, under whose organizational umbrella the NSO operates.

Since that engagement, the orchestra’s players have been telling members of the conductor search committee, “Get this guy,” bass trombonist Matthew Guilford, one of the five musician representatives on the committee, told The Washington Post’s Anne Midgette:

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