Joshua Weilerstein

The 26/27 season marks Joshua Weilerstein’s third season as Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lille and fourth as Chief Conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. Acclaimed for passionate performances that balance clarity and emotional depth, he is a compelling advocate for both the classical canon, the music of today and forgotten composers of the past.

This season Weilerstein takes the Orchestre National de Lille to the renowned La Chaise Dieu festival for two concerts and back to the Paris Philharmonie for a performance of Bizet’s The Pearlfishers. He also renews collaborations with soloists such as Alexandre Kantorow, Martin Fröst and Baibe Skride and explores some of the most important symphonic repertoire, including the Rite of Spring, Mahler’s 1st Symphony, and Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy. In Aalborg Weilerstein continues his popular live podcast series with the orchestra, as well as collaborating with Andreas Brantelid and Eldborg Hemsing, and he will open the season with the World Premiere by the Greenlandic composer Arnannguaq Gerstrøm. Elsewhere in 26/27 highlights include his return to the Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Indianapolis orchestras and debuts with the Gulbenkian and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic orchestras amongst others.

Weilerstein has conducted many of the world’s top orchestras, including in more recent seasons the Bavarian Radio Symphony in a televised performance of Shostakovich’s 5th symphony, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic both in Manchester and at the BBC Proms, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony and New York Philharmonic orchestras. He regularly collaborates with leading soloists such as Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Vilde Frang and Matthias Goerne. From 2015–2021, he was Artistic Director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne with whom he recorded the complete Beethoven symphonies and a disc of 20th and 21st century works by Ives, Ethel Smyth, William Grant Still and Caroline Shaw.

Born into a musical family, Weilerstein’s commitment to classical music was inspired by his experience on a youth orchestra tour to Central America, during which he performed for audiences that had never heard a live orchestra. He studied violin and conducting at the New England Conservatory and in 2009 won both the First and Audience Prizes at the Malko Competition in Copenhagen. He later served as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 2012–2015.

In 2017, inspired by Leonard Bernstein’s musical evangelism, Weilerstein launched the podcast Sticky Notes, which now reaches listeners in 190 countries and has been downloaded over eight million times.