In June 2019, Thierry was announced as the new Musical Director of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra from 2020. The orchestra now announces its 2020 season of performances.

In celebration of Beethoven’s 250 years, the orchestra presents a season comprised of symphonies, piano concertos, piano sonatas, choral works and cello pieces by the legendary composer. Thierry will conduct symphonies 1 through 8, with the 9th presented later in December as part of the orchestra’s farewell to conductor Marin Alsop.

In addition to works by Beethoven, the season features a bold selection of repertoire. Thierry will conduct twentieth century works featuring Schoenberg, Webern, Berg and Boulez as well as a Latin America Premiere of a new work for Cello by Tristan Murail.

Click here to find out more.

Thierry launches the O. C. Tanner Company Masterworks Series with the Utah Symphony on 12 September at the Browning Center for the Performing Arts in Utah. With repertoire ranging from John Williams Star Wars to Holst The Planets, Thierry explains his inspiration: “Since coming to Utah more than 10 years ago, I have often been awestruck by the beauties and majesties of its natural landscapes.”

Subsequent concerts in the series follow at Abravanel Hall, Salt Lake City on 13, 14, 27 & 28 September.

Thierry makes his debut conducting the Cleveland Orchestra on 19 July at Severence Hall, interrupting his vacation to replace Heras-Casado at short notice in a programme culminating in Debussy’s La Mer. They perform again together at the orchestra’s Blossom Music Festival in Cuyahoga Falls on 21 July. Thierry is a highly respected interpreter of French repertoire from the dawn of the 20th century; his Saint-Saëns symphony cycle on Hyperion with the Utah Symphony continues to attract glowing reviews:

” easily the finest performance the work has yet received on disc. Not only does the Utah Symphony play with the same conviction and finesse it brought to its superb recent recording of the Organ Symphony and the little known incidental for the forgotten play La foi, but there’s also a sparkle and subtlety in its playing that will inspire slack-jawed admiration”
Fanfare, July 2019

“An excellent reappraisal of symphonic Saint-Saëns … I hope there’ll be more”
BBC Record Review, June 2019

Thierry appeard on BBC Radio 3′s popular afternoon programme, In Tune, on 21 June to speak about his recent appointment as Music Director of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra from 2020. Thierry described how for him, his relationship with the orchestra was love at first sight:

“I can’t wait to start. As a conductor we spend a lot of weeks going from one orchestra to another, and from time to time, as soon as you conduct two bars you have this feeling that you can’t explain – that something could happen here, that it matches, that things work. It enhances your creativity, and this was one of those weeks!”

He also revealed what will feature at his concert with the orchestra on 9 July celebrating the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Sala Sao Paulo, which he called “one of the most beautiful concert halls in the world”. The concert opens with Beethoven Symphony No.5, followed by pieces chosen by public vote from composers including Villa-Lobos, Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Mahler.

Thierry’s interview was preceded by Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre from the latest recording in his cycle of the composer’s works for Hyperion with the Utah Symphony. The album also featured Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No.2 and Symphony in F and was described as “polished and graciously articulate” by Gramophone. Click here to purchase the recording.

Click here to listen back to In Tune on the BBC website.

The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, long recognised as South America’s leading symphony orchestra, today announced the appointment of Thierry as their next Music Director. Thierry was the first choice for the search committee led by musicians, management, board members and international advisers who were all impressed by his inspirational music making in concert and his rigorous attention to style and clarity of sound in rehearsal.

Thierry’s first concert as Music Director Designate will be on 9 July 2019 on the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Orchestra’s home, the Sala São Paulo. In his first concerts as Music Director he will conduct Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, part of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra’s wide-ranging Beethoven 250 cycle. Thierry will also conduct Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 1-8, with Marin Alsop conducting the Ninth in her last concerts as Music Director in December 2019.

Thierry remains Music Director of the Utah Symphony until August 2022 when he will become Music Director Emeritus. He is Principal Guest of the Seoul Philharmonic until the end of 2020, and continues as Honorary Conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic in Japan.

Read the full press release here.

Thierry steps in to conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on tour to Spain and London this week, replacing Vladimir Jurowski at very short notice.

Fischer and the orchestra are joined by soloist Alina Ibragimova for concerts at the Palau de la Música in Valencia and Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música on 29 and 30 May, before rounding off the week at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 31 May.

Fischer conducts a programme of Elgar Serenade for Strings, Strauss Violin Concerto and Sibelius Symphony No.2.

Thierry and the Utah Symphony continue their critically acclaimed Saint-Saëns symphonic cycle for Hyperion this month, with Volume 2 available from 3 May. Recorded at Abravanel Hall, the album features Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No.2, the tone poem Danse macabre featuring Utah Symphony Concertmaster Madeline Adkins and finally his Symphony in F major, also known as ‘Urbs Roma’. Click here to purchase the album from Hyperion Records or click here to purchase from Amazon.

Volume 1 of the cycle was released in January and was warmly received by the press, with Limelight Magazine praising Thierry and the Utah Symphony for their blend of “American muscle and Gallic lyricism”. Click here to purchase Volume 1.