An American takes over a French national orchestra
NewsThe next conductor of the Orchestre national de Lille will be the peripatetic American Joshua Weilerstein. He starts a year from now.
Weilerstein, 35, has just started work as Chief Conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra in Jutland, Denmark.
At Lille he succeeds Alexandre Bloch, who will have served for eight years.
photo: Paul Marc Mitchell/Intermusica
Congrats!
BTW: JW publishes a magnificent Podcast about Classical Music:
‚Sticky Notes‘, see e.g.
https://stickynotespodcast.libsyn.com/
Happy listening!
Good. He’s pretty good. One of the better young ones. Relates very well to the musicians in the orchestra. It turns more into a collaboration between musicians and conductor, than the conductor’s interpretation, if that’s your thing.
Lol. From really bad to worse…
Shame too because it’s actually a pretty good orchestra! In the French Top 5
“In the French Top 5” is never a phrase that inspires confidence, especially regarding orchestras.
He’s cute!
Great choice!!!
Oh geez…he can thank his illustrious father for his successful career.
And, while at it, possibly thank his talented sister as well.
Not necessarily. He CAN thank his illustrious father and his very gifted and accomplished mother for a music education and encouragement that began early in life. The same thing is true for his sister. Of course it is true that both of them had name recognition, and knew famous people in the music world from their adolescence. They cannot be blamed for that. There is a tendency in society to celebrate working-class businesses that are passed down from generation to generation (and they should be celebrated) — do you call that nepotism? Or a simply a form of familial apprenticeship that serves everyone? But when it happens in the fine arts, someone inevitably screams nepotism. At his age, I doubt that Daddy is calling in favors on behalf of his son.
Absolutely. He can thank his father for his brilliant musical talent and presumable encouragement to make music from a young age. But looks like Weilerstein won the Malko competition when he was 21 which started his career. You can’t do that by family connections, trust me.
Truthfully, “ALPHONSE”: Have you ever seen him conduct or played under him? Or had a conversation with him?
Well deserved! He’s a fantastic human being and musician.
GO JOSH!
How far would this failed violinist’s career go without daddy’s connections?
The Weilersteins pull all the strings in Lille and Aalborg !
What a spiteful and pointless comment
As a New York Philharmonic subscriber I had the pleasure of watching Weilerstein’s debut years ago and found he was already bringing something fresh and appealing to the stage. From his podcast and programming he seems to have continued to innovate and push boundaries beyond the city limits, and abroad! I find it unsurprising an orchestra like Lille would jump at the chance to bring him on board.
I wonder if any of the detractors here have actually seen him conduct? It’s easy to be an anonymous, bitter person who assumes people have things handed to them. Certainly much easier than making a true evaluation of their talent.
A win-win! Josh is creative, intelligent, and humble, and he is primed to do great things with this excellent ensemble.
How far the comments descend sometimes! Josh is a fabulous conductor and I have enjoyed every single occasion he’s guested for us.
Maybe that’s just the ugly side of our industry where green eyed monsters holding withered batons are waiting under every bridge to tear down someone else’s success.
Félicitations Lille, c’est un bon choix!
Really gives me hope that actually talented conductors like JW are being appointed to top positions. Great stuff!
A great choice!
Top notch musician for a wonderful orchestra. A musician that truly follows the score and is all about the music. The people commenting negatively above are clearly unhappy people that haven’t amounted to much in their life.
What have you amounted to, “Happy”, that you feel the need to make ad hominem attacks against strangers? Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
He is a wonderful conductor and educator. I am not sure how far he can go since he has expressed his dislike for Wagner in his podcast.
Interesting comment. I always remember Simon Rattle’s dislike of Tchaikovsky (he’s only performed a few very select pieces). If he’d played more Tchaikovsky then maybe he’d have had a career!