Conductor Gemma New Announces 2024-2025 Season Highlights
Photo Credit: Roy Cox
New York, NY (August 15, 2024) – Praised for her “programming prowess” (Vancouver Sun), conductor Gemma New is a rising star conductor with a “unique sensitivity and a heightened attention to detail and texture” (The Washington Post). In 2025, New takes on her fourth season as the Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. She also embarks on a global season featuring performances throughout the United States, Canada, the UK and Europe.
Following an exciting summer that included the world premiere of Huang Ruo’s immersive City of Floating Sounds with the BBC Philharmonic and a return to the BBC Proms with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, New commences a busy 2024/25 season with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, performing Lyell Cresswell’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and recording orchestral works by leading New Zealand composer Gillian Whitehead. In Europe, New makes her debut performances with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia and BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, also making returns to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Barcelona, Malmö Symphony, Orchestra della Toscana and Kristiansand Symfoniorkester. In North America, she returns to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and makes her debuts with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and with The Juilliard Orchestra. Building on her success leading Floyd’s Susannah with the Opera Theater of St. Louis in 2023, New also leads the Santa Fe Opera production of Britten's Turn of the Screw in July 2025.
New continues to lead the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s 2024 season, performing Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony alongside the world premiere of Lyell Cresswell’s Piano Concerto No. 3 on September 19, 2024 at Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington; September 20, 2024 at Toitoi Opera House in Hastings; September 21, 2024 at Auckland Town Hall; and September 27, 2024 at Christchurch Town Hall. She returns to the orchestra for concerts on November 22 and 23, 2024, featuring Holst’s The Planets as well as music by Kaija Saariaho and Elgar’s Violin Concerto with violinist Christian Tetzlaff.
In North America, New returns to lead the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on October 11 and 12, 2024 to conduct Sibelius Symphony No. 2, Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances and Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2, performed by violinist Vadim Gluzman. On October 18 and 19, 2024 at Hilbert Circle Theatre, New leads the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto performed by violinist Geneva Lewis. The program also features Alissa Firsova’s Bride of the Wind and Elgar’s Enigma Variations to celebrate themes of love and friendship.
From April 30 to May 1, 2025, New makes her debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, showcasing Salina Fisher’s Kintsugi and collaborating with Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero, who will perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 along with Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony.
Having previously served four seasons as St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s Resident Conductor, New returns to lead the orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on March 1 and 2, 2025 at Stifel Theatre, paired with Kevin Puts’ Hymn to the Sun and J. S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue. This will be New’s first time working with the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, after a scheduled performance with the chorus was canceled due to the pandemic in 2020.
Increasingly in demand in the United Kingdom, New makes her BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales debut with an October 24, 2024 performance at BBC Hoddinott Hall, featuring two UK premieres – Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances and Elena Kats-Chernin’s Fantasie im Wintergarten – plus a symphony by former Composer-in-Association Huw Watkins. From May 8 to 11, 2025, she leads the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Violin Concerto No.1 featuring violinist Rosanne Philippens. In her return to London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, she conducts a program including Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, Borodin's Polovtsian Dances, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Victoria Borisova-Ollas' Open Ground on June 11, 2025 at London's Cadogan Hall. In a second performance on June 12, 2025 at Hull City Hall, New and the orchestra will offer a slightly different program with the addition of Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
In Europe, New’s season engagements begin with a gala concert on October 29, 2024, where she opens the Mendelssohn Festival with a program featuring works by Adès, Mozart and Mendelssohn, spotlighting piano soloist Elena Bashkirova to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Mendelssohn Orchestra Academy of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.
On November 14, 2024, she leads the Kristiansand Symfoniorkester and cellist Maximilian Hornung in the American Champions program featuring Jessie Montgomery’s work Strum, along with Barber’s Cello Concerto and Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
She returns to the United States on December 14, 2024 for her debut with The Juilliard Orchestra at New York’s Alice Tully Hall, conducting a program pairing Fisher’s Kintsugi with Walton’s Violin Concerto and Holst’s The Planets. The concert will also be live-streamed on the Juilliard website.
New’s next engagement brings her to the Brussels Philharmonic for multiple concerts from January 5 to 11, 2025 as part of the orchestra’s New Year tour featuring percussionist Colin Currie on Andy Akiho's Percussion Concerto.
On January 22 and 23, 2025, she conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in a program comprising Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Rimsky Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol. She leads the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra on February 1-2, 2025 in Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto, performed by violinist Daniel Lozakovich.
For her debut with the Prague Philharmonia on February 16, 2025, New conducts the Czech premiere of Farrenc’s Overture No. 2. Violinist Josef Špaček will perform Brahms’ Violin Concerto, and the program will conclude with Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5. She heads to Sweden to lead the Malmö Symphony in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 on March 6, 2025, in a program including Montgomery’s Strum and Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 “Haffner”.
On April 9, 2025, she leads the Münchner Rundfunkorchester in a program of works featuring Ravel’s The Tombeau of Couperin, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto performed by violinist Alexandra Conunova and Stravinsky’s Firebird. She returns to the Orchestra della Toscana on April 17, 2025 for an Easter concert during Holy Week, appearing alongside soprano Eleonora Bellocci and countertenor Filippo Meneccia in a program of works by Pergolesi and Haydn.
The following month, she heads to Switzerland’s Musikkollegium Winterthur on subscription to conduct Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony on May 21 and 22, 2025 alongside two contemporary works: a concerto written by Efraín Oscher for the double bass soloist Edicson Ruiz and the orchestral piece Baroque Melting by Canadian composer Vivian Fung.
On May 30 and 31, 2025, New returns to Orquesta Sinfonica de Barcelona, where she conducts Holst’s The Planets, also collaborating with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes on works by Franck and Haydn.