"One of the most exciting and sought-after conductors working today..." (The Guardian)
Andris Nelsons is Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Celebrated for his profound musicality, inspiring leadership, and an instinctive connection with audiences and musicians alike, the five-time GRAMMY Award-winning conductor is firmly established as one of the most sought-after artists of our time.
Andris Nelsons conducted with concise focus and vigor and elicited the orchestra both tonal beauty and technical precision and visible enthusiasm.
Nelsons began his tenure in Boston with the 2014/15 season and in Leipzig in February 2018. Since then, Nelsons has forged an unprecedented artistic partnership between the two orchestras, including joint programming, commissions, recordings, touring projects, musician exchanges, and educational initiatives. A defining milestone for this pioneering alliance was marked in 2025 with the Shostakovich Festival Leipzig, bringing the two orchestras together for a landmark celebration of the composer’s music, centred on the complete symphonic cycle. A passionate educator, Nelsons serves as Head of Conducting at the Tanglewood Music Center, mentoring the next generation of conductors and orchestral musicians through rehearsals, concerts, and individual masterclasses.
The 2026/27 season with the Boston Symphony Orchestra includes a four-week Tchaikovsky cycle encompassing all six symphonies and a concert performance of “The Queen of Spades”. In March 2027, Nelsons and the orchestra embark on a major European tour with residencies in London, Hamburg and Paris. Joined by pianist Lang Lang, they perform programmes pairing Stravinsky’s ballet suites with Beethoven’s First and Second Piano Concertos. In April, Nelsons will lead the BSO’s Carnegie Hall residency with programmes featuring young breakout talent Himari and Yo-Yo Ma. With the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Nelsons embarks on a European tour in November 2026 with cellist Gautier Capuçon, including concerts in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The second half of the season is devoted to the orchestra’s Beethoven Year celebrations. Nelsons opens the Beethoven Festival Leipzig in May 2027, conducting the complete symphony cycle alongside the Violin Concerto and Triple Concerto. The Beethoven celebrations continue with a European tour to Liepaja, Riga, Paris, London, Hamburg, Bonn, Essen and Düsseldorf, where Lang Lang joins Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester for programmes featuring Beethoven’s Third, Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos.
Nelsons leaned forward into the sound, sculpting the music with surpassing tenderness.
As an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, Nelsons continues to build an acclaimed discography spanning the core symphonic repertoire and beyond. Most recently, he was named OPUS KLASSIK’s 2026 Conductor of the Year for his Mendelssohn cycle with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. In February 2026, he received his fifth GRAMMY Award when his recording of Messiaen’s “Turangalîla-Symphonie” with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Yuja Wang won the award for Best Orchestral Performance. The 2026/27 season also sees the release of Nelsons’ highly anticipated complete Mahler symphony cycle with the Wiener Philharmoniker – only the second complete cycle ever recorded by the orchestra – as well as the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with Lang Lang and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Together with acclaimed recording cycles devoted to Shostakovich, Bruckner, Beethoven and the orchestral works of Richard Strauss, these releases have established Nelsons as one of the foremost recorded interpreters of the symphonic repertoire.
Mr. Nelsons has brought a jolt of youthful energy, along with charisma and accomplishment [to the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall]. The audience gave Mr. Nelsons and the players an enormous ovation. Whatever the future, for now the Boston Symphony has placed its trust in a young dynamo.
Born in Riga in 1978, Andris Nelsons began his career at seventeen as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra whilst studying conducting. Outside music, Nelsons is a keen collector of perfumes and holds a 3rd degree black belt in Taekwondo. His deeply held commitment to musical excellence is reflected in the receipt of numerous professional accolades throughout his career, including being made an Honorary Member of the Wiener Philharmoniker in 2026, and the award of an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for services to music.