Nathalie Stutzmann. Photo by Brice Toul.
In October, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra made history when it announced that Nathalie Stutzmann (right) has been appointed as its next music director—the first woman to serve in that role at the ASO. This fall, she will succeed Robert Spano, the orchestra’s music director from 2001 to 2021. Stutzmann, a native of France, is also currently the Philadelphia Orchestra’s principal guest conductor and chief conductor of Norway’s Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. She made her first appearance in Atlanta as music director designate in October, when she conducted music by Tchaikovsky, Verdi, and Missy Mazzoli. In March 2022, she will conduct the ASO in Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration and Mozart’s Requiem, also featuring the ASO chorus. Stutzmann has had a distinguished career as a contralto, and also studied piano, bassoon, and cello. Stutzmann studied conducting with Finland’s Jorma Panula and was mentored by Seiji Ozawa and Simon Rattle. Stutzmann’s future conducting dates include the Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Hamburg NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Radio Symphony, and Brussels’s La Monnaie.
