JoAnn Falletta.
In last Tuesday’s (4/8) Buffalo News (NY), Toni Ruberto writes, “A new contract extension will ensure that JoAnn Falletta will celebrate 30 years of leading the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. The BPO’s board of trustees unanimously approved a three-year contract extension for the BPO music director that takes effect when her current term ends after the upcoming 2025-26 season. It continues through 2029, when Falletta marks her 30th anniversary leading the orchestra. Falletta became the first woman to lead a major American orchestra when she was named the BPO’s music director in 1999. Since then, she has raised the orchestra’s stature in Buffalo and throughout the world by winning multiple Grammy Awards, taking the orchestra for performances outside of Buffalo and bringing in some of the world’s most renowned artists … all while helping to define the city as a cultural destination…. The BPO has performed more than 20 new orchestral works including multiple world premieres and the commission of more than 10 new works for the orchestra by such composers as Daron Hagen, Adolphus Hailstork and Wang Jie…. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2025-26 season showcases three world premieres, Beethoven and Mozart festivals, the return of holiday favorites and appearances by award-winning Broadway star Leslie Odom Jr., pianist Fabio Bidini and classical guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas.”
