This week, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra announced it has chosen Nathalie Stutzmann as its fifth music director. She succeeds Robert Spano.
Stutzmann will be the first woman to serve as the ASO’s music director and only the second woman to lead a major American orchestra. Marin Alsop recently stepped down as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In Atlanta, Stutzmann follows past ASO music directors Henry Sopkin, Robert Shaw, Yoel Levi and Robert Spano.
Stutzmann is an operatic contralto with more than 80 recordings and a contract with Warner Bros/Erato records. Currently, she is Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Chief Conductor of Norway’s Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. She is also a noted conductor of opera, and was to have made her Metropolitan Opera debut this fall, postponed due to the pandemic.
She studied conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula and was mentored by Seiji Ozawa and Sir Simon Rattle.
Her recent and future U.S. engagements include orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony, with many other engagements in Europe.
Even a few years ago, choosing a woman as music director was considered to be a bold move. Years ago, my very first feature article in the Enquirer was entitled “The Maestro is a Ms” — because at the time, a woman on the podium was so rare. Over the decades, not much changed.
I would suggest that now times have indeed changed — there are vastly talented musicians of every gender and race, and orchestras and boards of directors are taking note.
janellesnotes 