Conductor James Gaffigan Announces 2024-2025 Season Highlights
Photo Credit: Vera Hartmann
New York, NY (August 13, 2024) – Praised for his “impassioned leadership” (The Wall Street Journal) and “meticulous presentation” (OperaWire), American conductor James Gaffigan is known worldwide for his equal prowess as a conductor of symphony orchestras and opera. He holds the rare distinction of leading two top European opera houses, returning for his second season as General Music Director at Komische Oper Berlin and his fourth as Music Director of Spain’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, home to the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana. Dividing much of his season between Berlin and Valencia, he also takes on European guest engagements including his debut with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and returns to the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Czech Philharmonic and Luzerner Sinfonieorchester – where he was Chief Conductor from 2011 to 2021. In the United States, he makes return engagements with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Houston Grand Opera.
Following a busy summer of performances, including leading orchestras at the Verbier Festival and Aspen Music Festival, Gaffigan made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood on August 11, praised by The Berkshire Eagle, which wrote “Gaffigan’s conducting, and the BSO’s performance, also rank among the greatest re-creations of Mahler’s supreme achievement — especially the tender, time-stopping third-movement adagio, the composer’s favorite slow movement among his nine numbered symphonies.” He leads Komische Oper Berlin in the UK premiere production of a new production of The Marriage of Figaro on August 16, 17 and 18.
Gaffigan’s season with Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana begins August 30, 2024 at the Festival de Pollença in Majorca, Spain, where he conducts the orchestra in a program featuring violin soloist Sergey Khachatryan on Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, paired in this concert with Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in F major and Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3. His orchestral schedule continues September 5, 2024 as the orchestra performs at Festival Otoño Musical Soriano in Soria, Spain, reprising the same two pieces by Brahms and Beethoven along with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, featuring piano soloist Javier Perianes. From September 12 to September 15, 2024, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana takes its program of Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in F major and Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 to a weekend of performances in Llíria, Spain. On December 20, 2024, Gaffigan leads the orchestra in the Spanish premiere of Francisco Coll’s work Ciudad sin sueño (“City That Does Not Sleep”), a Flamenco-inspired fantasia for piano and orchestra featuring Perianes as piano soloist in a recorded performance. The program also includes César Franck’s Le Chasseur maudit and two works by Ravel: La Valse and Piano Concerto in G major. In his final concert of the season with Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana on April 3, 2025, Gaffigan conducts the orchestra in a program of Schubert’s Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, D 714; Haydn’s Symphony No. 49 in F minor; and Prokofiev’s cantata Alexander Nevsky, derived from his score for the 1938 film of the same name. Mezzo-soprano Olesya Petrova is featured on Prokofiev’s piece.
In the first of his opera engagements this season, Gaffigan leads Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in a staging of Massenet’s opera Manon, running from October 3 to October 15, 2024. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Charles Castronovo star in this production first staged by the Paris Opera. From March 3 through March 15, 2025, Gaffigan returns to Valencia for a production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman featuring bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee and soprano Elisabet Strid.
For Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, which toured only rarely in the past, this more expansive season with multiple dates outside Valencia represents a milestone, Gaffigan said: “This orchestra should be known all around Spain and internationally, beyond its deep roots in the Valencia region. The 2024-2025 season will bring great pride and excitement – both in touring and in returning home.”
With Komische Oper Berlin, Gaffigan conducts his first concert of the season on October 31, 2024, leading the orchestra in a program titled James’ Choice, a selection of works handpicked by Gaffigan. Reflecting both his American identity and his career in Europe, Gaffigan has curated a program of works by European composers who made their homes in the United States, comprising works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Kurt Weill, who both left Europe in the 1930s due to their Jewish roots, as well as pieces by Dvořák, Mahler and Ignatz Waghalter. As the orchestra’s concert schedule continues on November 29, 2024, Gaffigan joins actor and director Herbert Fritsch in presenting Herbert Fritsch Does a Concert. In a program reflecting his proudly eccentric style, Fritsch offers a performance of György Ligeti’s groundbreaking Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes. To open the new year, Gaffigan leads a gala concert, Starting Anew, on January 1, 2025, featuring Komische Oper Berlin alongside American pianist Uri Caine and his Klezmer band, celebrated for infusing Klezmer influences into classical music and other genres to cast iconic pieces from the traditional canon in a new light. He returns to Berlin on February 8 and 9, 2025 for Everybody Now!, leading audiences in a participatory program of music and movement. For this experience, audience members may choose from among three “Schall & Rausch” (“Sound & Rapture”) “playrooms,” one of which is led by Gaffigan. On March 20, 2025, Gaffigan leads the orchestra in The Buzz of Springtime, featuring an appearance by actor Robin Poell. The program includes Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee from The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Grieg’s Morning Mood from Peer Gynt and Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker. On May 2 and May 12, 2025, Gaffigan conducts the orchestra in Springtime Emotions, bringing together Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 with two more modern works that channel the sensations of springtime: Elena Kats-Chernin’s Dance of the Paper Umbrella and Grażyna Bacewicz’s rapidfire Overture for Orchestra. Norwegian pianist Christian Ihle Hadland is featured on the Mozart piece.
Gaffigan also conducts Komische Oper Berlin in a total of three stage productions, beginning with a summer performance of Kirill Serebrennikov’s staging of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Edinburgh International Festival from August 16 to August 18, 2024. From November 17, 2024 to January 4, 2025, he leads the orchestra in Barrie Kosky’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Concurrently, Gaffigan leads a month-long run of The Marriage of Figaro – the Serebrennikov staging in its premiere in last season, and later at the Edinburgh International Festival – with performances from November 23 to December 27, 2024. In his final engagements with Komische Oper Berlin this season, Gaffigan conducts the orchestra in Serebrennikov’s production of Don Giovanni, running from April 27 to May 23, 2025 – concluding the trilogy of Mozart’s Da Ponte operas, as performed by Komische Oper Berlin under Gaffigan’s baton.
In a highlight of this season’s guest engagements, Gaffigan makes his debut with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, leading performances in both Hamburg and Lübeck, Germany on January 23, 24 and 26, 2025. The program for all three concerts comprises the Introduction from Mussorgsky’s "Khovanshchina," along with Haydn’s Symphony in F minor, Beethoven’s Overture to "Egmont" and Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in C sharp minor, featuring soloist Vadim Gluzman. Among his other European guest appearances, Gaffigan returns to Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks for performances on March 27 and 28, 2025. The program includes William Grant Still’s Mother and Child, Dvořák’s American Suite, Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium – featuring violin soloist Janine Jansen – and George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. On May 7 and 8, 2025, he returns to the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, where he was Chief Conductor from 2011 to 2021, in two editions of the Arthur Waser Prize-Winner’s Concert featuring performances of Strauss’s Serenade for Wind Instruments and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 in D minor, along with a soloist concerto to be selected by the 2025 winner of the Arthur Waser Prize for outstanding young soloists. On June 19, 2025, he conducts the Czech Philharmonic in its traditional season-ending Open-Air Concert, featuring selections curated by Gaffigan to capture a spirit of energy and dance. The complete program is TBA.
Among his guest engagements in the United States, Gaffigan returns to the San Francisco Symphony from January 9 to January 11, 2025. The program pairs Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) with Barber’s Violin Concerto, featuring soloist Ray Chen, and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. On January 17, 2025, he leads Houston Grand Opera in the annual Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. For the first time, the HGO Orchestra accompanies the 2025 finalists in this competition for talented young artists, who will compete for cash prizes and an invitation to join the prestigious Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio, which provides comprehensive career development for emerging opera singers.
In his return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on May 31, 2025, Gaffigan conducts a musical “American road trip” featuring Dvořák’s American Suite followed by two works by Bernstein – Three Dance Episodes from On the Town and Overture to Candide. Completing the program are three pieces by Gershwin – Summertime and My Man's Gone Now from Porgy and Bess, and An American in Paris – as well as two songs by Florence Price. Soprano Janai Brugger is featured as soloist. From June 12 to June 14, 2025, he leads the National Symphony Orchestra in three concerts spotlighting film music by classical composers, including Leonard Bernstein’s soundtrack for On the Waterfront and Nino Rota’s music for The Godfather. Thursday’s concert also features GRAMMY® Award winner James Ehnes in a performance of James Newton Howard’s Violin Concerto No. 2, while Friday’s program incorporates Michael Abels’ work Delights and Dances and Saturday’s performance spotlights Abel Pereira in John Williams’ Horn Concerto.
In summer 2025, Gaffigan leads the Santa Fe Opera’s company premiere of Die Walküre, the second part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, running from July 26 through August 21, 2025.