The tenure of Chad Smith, the innovative artistic leader who last year left the Los Angeles Philharmonic to lead the relatively antiquated Boston Symphony Orchestra, is beginning to take shape.
In an announcement Thursday, the Boston Symphony said that Andris Nelsons, its music director, would move to a permanent, permanent contract rather than one with a fixed expiration date, and would take on a new educational role as director of conducting at Tanglewood .
Additionally, the orchestra appointed Carlos Simón to a newly created position of composer professorship; and announced that he would establish the Boston Symphony Orchestra Humanities Institute, an initiative aimed at expanding the ensemble's relationship with Boston outside of its historic concert hall.
“I came to the Boston Symphony with the idea that this is a remarkable institution with a remarkable history,” Smith said in an interview. “But the opportunities for what we can do in the future were very compelling.”
This announcement is the beginning of that work, he added.
Smith took over the Boston Symphony last fall after two decades at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where, in shaping its programming, he played a major role in establishing the orchestra as one of the most creative and exciting from the country. In 2019, he became executive director of the Philharmonic.
The Boston orchestra, while a perennial generator of new music, is widely seen as traditional. Thursday's announcements build on both reputations, with a forward-thinking aspiration.
Nelsons' contract as music director was set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 season; With the change to an evergreen one, it will be renewed automatically. And with his new title at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony's summer season in the Berkshires, he will take on a more educational role. Smith described Nelsons' masterclasses as “eye-opening”.
In a statement, Nelsons said: “It seems like yesterday that I began my role as music director of the BSO, and yet for the past 10 years, the BSO has not only been a beloved orchestra, but also my home.”
Simon's appointment to the inaugural Professorship of Composers, endowed by Deborah and Philip Edmundson, will be for three seasons beginning this fall. More than just a residency, the orchestra described the position as also curatorial, with involvement in programming, education and community initiatives. Simon, who has been composer-in-residence at Washington's Kennedy Center since 2021, where his tenure was recently extended through 2027, has been an increasingly sought-after artist over the past decade, especially as classical music institutions began to diversify. his repertoire. after the murder of George Floyd.
His position also aims to interact with the Humanities Institute, which will take shape as its leaders and staff are named. (The orchestra said it would hire a humanities director and appoint a humanities professor.) The Humanities Institute will be managed by the Tanglewood Learning Institute, whose Linde Center for Music and Learning opened in 2019.
Part of the idea, the orchestra said, is to draw on the rich and consequential history of both the Boston Symphony and its city, to generate themes in its programming and engagement with the help of thinkers beyond the world of music.
“It allows the BSO to step outside the walls of Symphony Hall and Tanglewood and create meaningful collaborations,” Smith said, “with the idea that through this we can expand the work that we do.”
