Langrée to stay with CSO through 2022
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and music director Louis Langrée have agreed to extend the conductor’s contract through the 2021-22 season.
The new contract adds two years to the previous extension announced in March 2015. Langrée is the orchestra's 13th music director.
“Working in this great institution, developing our artistic identity, discovering new music as well as exploring beloved masterpieces has been extremely gratifying as a musician," Langrée said. "I am also deeply happy to continue building relationships in Cincinnati. Being part of this extraordinary community is a constant source of joy for me and for my family.”
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Since beginning his tenure in 2013, the conductor has made several recordings and broadcasts with the orchestra. The announcement, made Sunday, comes on the eve of Langrée's first international tour with the Cincinnati Symphony next month to Asia. In August, he and the CSO will embark on a three-week tour to capital cities and major music festivals in Europe.
This fall, Langrée will lead opening weekend concerts at Music Hall on Oct. 6 and 7 following the building's $135 million renovation.
During his tenure, Langrée has appointed 10 full-time musicians to the orchestra. He is holding auditions this season and next to restore positions that were left vacant in leaner years following a successful $26 million endowment campaign.
In January 2016, Langrée took the orchestra to New York to perform in David Geffen Hall for the 50th anniversary of the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center. Langrée is well known in New York as the music director of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. He is a regular guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as with orchestras and opera companies around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and La Scala in Milan.
His projects with the Cincinnati Symphony have included four consecutive years of Lumenocity concerts combining live orchestral music with projection mapping, the MusicNOW Festival, which premiered multiple new works in collaboration with artistic director Bryce Dessner, an annual "One City, One Symphony" community engagement project and a three-year "Pelléas Trilogy" with director James Darrah.