The world’s longest serving music directors
mainToday is Zubin Mehta’s last as music director of the Israel Philharmonic.
Has any current maestro held a podium for so long?
Here’s a ready reckoner.
1 Zubin Mehta – Israel Philharmonic – 50 years
2 John Eliot Gardiner – English Baroque Soloists – 41 years
3 Ivan Fischer – Budapest Festival Orchestra – 36 years
4 Michael Tilson Thomas – New World Symphony – 32 years
5 Valery Gergiev – Mariinsky Theatre – 31 years
=5 Yuri Temirkanov – St Petersburg Philharmonic – 31 years (pictured)
7 Daniel Barenboim – Staatskapelle Berlin – 27 years
8 JoAnn Falletta – Buffalo Symphony – 26 years (just renewed)
9Gustavo Dudamel – Bolivar Symphony – 20 years
10 Yu Long – China National Symphony – 19 years
= 10 Yannick Nézet-Séguin – Orchestre Métropolitain – 19 years
Who have we forgotten?
Neeme Järvi – GSO – 22 years
Neeme Järvi – ERSO – 25 years
Joint 19, Riccardo Muti at La Scala
Herbert von Karajan – BPO – 34 years.
I think he’s dead.
………….it said “current” i.e. alive, but HVK was there a while. If including the deceased we’d have Ormandy in Philly etc etc etc
David Zinman – Tonhalle Zürich – 19 years
Barenboim Berlin 27 until now..
Barenboim – Divan – 20 years
Yevgeny Mravinsky – 50 years, Leningrad Philarmonic
Current music directors.
Mengelberg Concertgebouw 50 years.
Michel Corboz Gulbenkian Choir 50 years and still going on.
Daniel Barenboim Staatskapelle Berlin 27 years
William Christie, Les Arts Florissants, 40 years
Delighted to see this. Well spotted. Was most surprised with Dudamel’s high position.
Yuri Simonov – Moscow Philharmonic – 21 years
Bernard Haitink – Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra – 27 years
Vladimir Fedoseyev, Tschaikowsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow:
1974 – 1999 and since 2006
(together 38 years)
Fedoseyev in Tchaikovskiy Moscow Radio Symphony from 1974 till today.
45+ years together without a break.
Thank you!
I wasn’t quite sure and trusted Wikipedia…
steven sloane … 27 years
David Alan Miller, Albany (NY) Symphony, 27 years. Carl St. Clair, Pacific Symphony, 30 years. Neal Gittelman, Dayton Philharmonic, 25 years. Michael Morgan, Oakland Symphony, 29 years.
Aren’t Oakland and Pacific Symphony part time, per service orchestras?
Was that part of the question?
I believe so.
Thumbs up to DA Miller. I didn’t realize he had been there that long. I bet he could have moved on to a bigger orchestra if he had wanted.
This discussion has expanded to past tenures, when the music director duties included a greater number of concerts. Between concerts, recordings and overall years, I can think of two tenures that top most others: Eugene Ormandy at the Philadelphia Orchestra (1936-1980) and Neville Marriner at the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (1959-2000; wasn’t he de fact music director all those years?).
I think Norman started out by saying ‘current’ music directors. As in living and in their positions.
Harnoncourt – Concentus Musicus Wien – 63 years (1953-2016)
Eugene Ormandy, 44 years with the Philadelphia Orchestra .
Michel Plasson, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, 35 years !
How long was Harry Blech with the London Mozart Players?
Founder conductor from 1949 until 1985.
I was his 2nd Horn from 1974 until 2012, 38 years!
While some of the ensembles listed are ad hoc or don’t play year round, it would be interesting to see what those music directorship records at full-time orchestras amount to in „real time“.
All too often „a year“ means „some weeks“ where MDs are concerned and a 10 year music directorship on paper frequently translates into a mere 2,5 years of actual time spent.
Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse romande, 49 years (1918-1967).
Apparently many of the contributors here are not familiar with the meaning of the word “current”. Hint: at the very least in this context it means “living”.
Michael Tilson Thomas – San Francisco Symphony- 25 years
Jordi Savall with his ensembles. William Christie with Les Arts Florissants.
Dieter Kober, 60+ Cchicago Chamber Orchestra
I also thought of Yevgeny Mravinsky, 50 years, Leningrad PO, but Old Times there are not orgotten and beat me to it. Once Serge Koussevitzky was thought of as forever for just 25 years at BSO. It seemed like longer. He was a good conductor who evidently could barely read music.
To be accurate: Mehta was appointed Music Advisor in 1969 and Musical Director in 1977.
And don’t forget James Levine’s 40 years tenure at the helm of the Met
Eugene Ormandy, 1936-1980, 44 years. Philadelphia Orchestra.
Not current, but well worth remembering: Frederick Stock, 37 years with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Eugene Ormandy 44 years with the Philadelphia.
Franz Welser Most: Music Director at Cleveland since 2002/3 season. Contract recently extended to 2026/7
Alfred Savia, Evansville Philharmonic 30 years
Ozawa Boston 29 years
Ernst Ansermet, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Eugene Ormandy, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Takashi Asahina, Willem Mengelberg, that’s who.
Gergiev. Chief in Mariinsky since 1989
Seiji Ozawa, Boston Symphony 29 years
Serge Koussevitzky, Boston Symphony 25 years
Arthur Fiedler, Boston Pops 50 years
Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops (1930-1979) 49 years.
Anthony LaGruth Garden State Philharmonic (NJ) 18 years
While one obviously salutes the achievements of all these conductors, I wonder if it’s entirely fair to compare conductors who founded orchestras as their own vehicles (Gardiner, Christie, Harnoncourt, arguably Ivan Fischer), and whose orchestras never perform(ed) with other conductors, with conductors who were engaged and re-engaged by pre-existing institutions.
That said, Concentus Musicus Wien has outlived Harnoncourt, and Christie seems to have lined up two successors (associate conductors Paul Agnew and Jonathan Cohen) so that Les Arts Florissants will outlive him.
I’m not so sure the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists will outlive Gardiner; for one thing, I find it hard to picture Gardiner sharing authority with an associate/heir apparent the way Christie is doing. (And doesn’t Gardiner fund the groups himself, at least partly?)
If I had to bet money, I would bet that the Budapest Festival Orchestra outlives Fischer, but that will probably depend on the municipal and national governments in Budapest.
Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew’s wall-to-wall Monteverdi: not the way to go. I feel the group has lost its way a little. I know William Christie did Monteverdi but the real raison d’être of his group was French baroque.
You’ve forgotten multitudes of conductors in smaller orchestras but it looks like your list is only for the big names. You should research ALL orchestras and not just big ones.
Levine at the MET, 1971-2017 or thereabouts, so 46 years?
Gerard Schwarz – Seattle Symphony , 25 years
I think NL’s original question pertained to conductors who are *currently still serving* in a position. But if we look to the past, Mehta’s 50 years at the IPO was tied by Willem Mengelberg’s 50 years with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
And though it was not a full-time conducting gig, Henry Wood made it to the 50th anniversary season of the Proms.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Thomaskirche, 27 years.
/s
Sir Georg Solti — Chicago Symphony Orchestra — 24 years
SIR MARK ELDER 19 with the Halle and we hope many more to come after recovery
Robert Spano at Atlanta Symphony. 20 years by the time he steps down in 2021.
Engine ormandy Philadelphia orchestra
in view of what I have seen below, ignoring those are not current, I think we now need a revised list of the top 10.
Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale, since 1970… so almost a golden Jubilee
Takashi Asahina (Osaka Philharmonic) 1947-2001 (54 years)