WDR Sinfonieorchester extends Cristian Măcelaru's Chief Conductor contract to 2025

Cristian Măcelaru will remain Chief Conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester to 2025 (Photo credit: Thomas Kost)

For Immediate Release

COLOGNE, Germany (June 26, 2020) — Cristian Măcelaru has extended his contract as Chief Conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester by three seasons, the WDR of Germany has announced today. The WDR Sinfonieorchester approved the extension on Friday, June 26, 2020. This means that Măcelaru will head the WDR’s top orchestra at least up until July 31, 2025.

During his initial contract as Chief Conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester, Cristian Măcelaru has established an international reputation as a top-flight conductor. “Right at his inaugural concert in September 2019, he conquered the hearts of the public with his expressiveness. Admired by both the media and professional music critics, Cristian Măcelaru has been a driver of innovation for our orchestra, while at the same time a professional communicator who also knows how to play the keyboard of the internet,” says WDR Program Director Valerie Weber. “With his personality and an unusually broad repertoire that ranges from Bach right up to contemporary music, he has made such a convincing impression in his first year that we would like to keep him for longer in North Rhine Westphalia and at our orchestra.”

Forty-year-old Cristian Măcelaru is looking forward with anticipation to the approaching season, as global concert and cultural life are confronted with new challenges in COVID-19 times. The Romanian-born conductor is keenly interested in integrating symphonic music into the digital media – from concert livestreaming to musical introductions by video. “Being on stage with the superb musicians of the WDRSO is always stimulating, while simultaneously being a meaningful discovery of the most diverse musical opportunities,” he says. “I am very pleased that we will continue to be able to create many moments of beauty for our faithful audience, to give new life to timeless musical masterpieces and to continue the artistic partnerships that have made the WDR Sinfonieorchester one of the best orchestras in Germany and the world as a whole.”

Cristian Măcelaru is in great demand as guest conductor with many reputable orchestras worldwide, among others the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Măcelaru performs regularly at the podium of the best American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra – an orchestra he has conducted more than 100 times.

Cristian Măcelaru conducted the WDR Sinfonieorchester for the first time in February 2017. In November 2019, he was appointed Music Director of the Orchestre National de France and Inaugural Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen Center for the Arts. He continues to serve as Music Director and Conductor of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. In January 2020, he received a GRAMMY® Award for an album of Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto which he conducted featuring Nicola Benedetti and the Philadelphia Orchestra.