NEW YORK (AP) — Jonathon Heyward will succeed Louis Langrée as music director of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Orchestra, which will be given a new and as yet undetermined name by the summer of 2024.
The 30-year-old conductor will start a three-year contract with the summer ensemble in 2024, the performing arts organization said Wednesday.
Founded in 1966, the Mostly Mozart Orchestra has had a reduced presence in Lincoln Center’s summer programming in recent years. The Lincoln Center in 1996 cut the Mostly Mozart schedule from seven weeks to four. The orchestra gave 15 performances last summer. There are 14 scheduled this summer, including 12 in renovated David Geffen Hall.
Heyward will work with Shanta Thake, Lincoln Center’s chief artistic officer, to integrate the orchestra into the larger Summer for the City festival.
Langrée, 62, is entering his last summer as music director, a position he assumed in 2003. He replaced Gerard Schwarz, who had been music director since 1984.
Heyward becomes music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2023-24.
Heyward was named in July as the successor to Marin Alsop, who had a 14-year tenure as the BSO’s music director and founder of BSO OrchKids. His appointment was historic, making him the orchestra’s first nonwhite lead in its 106-year history.
In this first year of his five-year contract, Heyward will conduct seven weeks of the “Classical Series” for subscribers, and will introduce a new “Casual Conversations” format. He has said he will place a priority on “programming that is relevant to the community,” both in “having familiar faces in the community on our stages” as well as “pre- and post-concert experiences that relate to the community.”
Banner staff contributed to this report.
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.