The German-born composer and conductor Matthias Pintscher didn’t know what to anticipate when he traveled to Missouri in March to guide a collection of performances with the Kansas Metropolis Symphony. He had by no means been to town, nor had he labored with its orchestra.
However after a number of days of rehearsing and performing works by Ravel, Ligeti and Scriabin, Pintscher felt a deep reference to the ensemble. “There was magic,” he mentioned in an interview. “A willingness to actually give one of the best.”
The orchestra was impressed, too: On Tuesday, it introduced that Pintscher, 52, had agreed to function its subsequent music director, starting with a five-year time period in 2024. He’ll succeed Michael Stern, who has been the orchestra’s chief since 2005, and lead the orchestra for 10 weeks every season.
Danny Beckley, the orchestra’s president and chief govt, supplied Pintscher the job solely a few days after his March go to. He described Pintscher’s relationship with the orchestra as “electrical” and mentioned he hoped Pintscher might assist to get extra folks into the live performance corridor.
“We’re dedicated to creating orchestral music extra interesting to a far wider viewers, and I believe Matthias can actually assist make that occur,” Beckley mentioned in an announcement.
Pintscher, who lives in New York Metropolis, rose to prominence as a composer, writing a variety of music, for orchestra and chamber ensembles, in addition to solo items for piano and voice. His compositions are sometimes evocative and mysterious, showcasing the flexibility of devices just like the clarinet and the double bass to whisper.
He has additionally received accolades as a conductor, serving as music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, a brand new music group, in addition to the Lucerne Competition Academy Orchestra in Switzerland. (His tenure on the Ensemble Intercontemporain, which he has led for a decade, ends this season.) He’s a member of the composition school at Juilliard.
In Kansas Metropolis, he mentioned, he felt a way of belonging. He recalled chatting with a stranger at a grocery store; after he launched himself, she instantly purchased tickets to a live performance.
“It was such a heat welcome, by town, the locals, the general public, the musicians,” he mentioned. “It was a cheerful arrival.”
