Just in: Spanish orch picks US music director
mainMusicians of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra today surprised pundits by picking a little-known American as music director.
From a candidate field that included the Mexican Carlos Miguel Prieto, the Israeli Yaron Traub and the strongly-tipped Italian Speranza Scappucci, the players cast most of their votes for Erik Nielsen.
Nielsen, 37 and from Iowa, has been Kapellmeister at Frankfurt Opera and a Solti Fellowship holder. Six weeks ago, he was named as music director of the opera house in Basle, Switzerland.
Congratulations Erik, fantastic news 🙂 and well deserved. What an amazing last few years this has been for him!!
Well done Bilbao, fantastic conductor. Congratulations
Consummate musician. Great to hear that the players’ votes counted so much in the appointment, as this is not frequently taken into consideration in American orchestras. I wish the article mentioned Nielsen earlier and talked more about him, rather than commenting on the field of candidates and suggesting at a surprise to pundits. Pundits aren’t active in the field, and aren’t present at rehearsals. So little of a conductor’s worth and musicianship can be viewed from an audience. Congrats to Erik