Cristian Măcelaru
conductor
About this Artist
Cristian Măcelaru is a GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor widely admired for a rare fusion of interpretive rigor, emotional intelligence, and generosity of spirit. He is Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Orchestre National de France, for which he is in his seventh and final season, Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival and Competition, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Interlochen Center for the Arts’ World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director and Conductor of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
Highly sought after as a guest conductor, Măcelaru has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His operatic work includes acclaimed productions at major houses such as Houston Grand Opera and Opera Națională București.
A passionate advocate for contemporary music, he has commissioned and premiered works by more than 52 composers, including Wynton Marsalis, Tan Dun, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Jake Heggie, Nico Muhly, Sean Shepherd, and Gabriella Smith.
Măcelaru received a GRAMMY® Award for his Decca Classics recording of Marsalis’s Violin Concerto with Nicola Benedetti and The Philadelphia Orchestra, and has earned numerous international honors for his discography on labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics, Naïve Records, and Linn Records. Upcoming releases include Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Orchestre National de France on Naïve Records, and Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin and Concerto for Orchestra with the WDR Sinfonieorchester on Linn Records.