Warm praise for inaugural season of Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center and Music Director Jonathon Heyward

Photo Credit: Lawrence Sumulong

The New York Times writes:

“He burst onto the global scene in 2021 after leading Britain’s National Youth Orchestra in Beethoven’s Third Symphony at the BBC Proms.”

“Soon, major orchestras were knocking, including the Baltimore Symphony, which announced in 2022 that it had picked Heyward to succeed Marin Alsop. Lincoln Center tapped him last year to succeed Mostly Mozart's longtime music director, Louis Langrée.”

Read the full article here.

“Under the tall and graceful Heyward, who is also the new Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and whose M.C. work got more relaxed as the performance went on, the ensemble sounded crisp and genial.'“

Read the full article here.

Financial Times writes:

“At a rehearsal, Heyward told the orchestra he wanted “the most organized and metronomically secure” performance of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony, and the orchestra delivered that, and more. This was as well-formed, thrilling and glorious as one has heard this masterpiece.”

Read the full article here.

Musical America writes:

“Apart from generating the excitement of a competition with winners and losers, the evening was essentially a preview of the entire season, which the orchestra, whose members are scattered far and wide during the year, had to come together and rehearse anyway the week before. In a panel yesterday, Heyward reported that people were writing down which programs they would attend, based on the sampling to which they had just been exposed. It seems he is off to a winning start.”

Read the full article here.