The 29-year-old classical music phenomenon Jonathan Hayward, whose conductor’s onstage skills made international headlines, was named Thursday as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s next musical director.
When Hayward begins his five-year contract in the fall of 2023, he will be the only black American conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra and just the second in history. He will be the 13th music director of BSO.
Brian Prechtal, chairman of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Players Committee and a member of the search committee that seeks a successor to former music director Marin Alsop, said, “I think we are ready for great things at the moment.” “The recruiting of Jonathan Hayward is going to be a pivotal moment for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.”
Hayward’s appointment came at a rapid pace in the context of classical music, where the search for a new music director can often take two or three years. Initially, symphony officials said Alsop’s successor, the first woman to handle a major US symphony, might not be appointed until the spring of 2024.
