The Score | Toronto Symphony: Bienvenue, Gustavo Gimeno

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has named Spanish conductor Gustavo Gimeno as its next music director, succeeding Peter Oundjian, who stepped down in June 2018. Sir Andrew Davis is serving as the orchestra’s interim artistic director through the end of the 2019-20 season, and Gimeno’s initial five-year contract takes effect with the 2020-21 season. Gimeno, who made his Canadian debut with the TSO in February 2018, has been music director of the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015. He began his international conducting career in 2012 as assistant to Mariss Jansons while he was a member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, and has also studied with Bernard Haitink and Claudio Abbado. Born in Valencia, Spain, Gimeno is fluent in Spanish, English, Italian, and Dutch, and is studying French. In the current season, Gimeno will guest conduct the Cleveland Orchestra, the Houston, St. Louis, and Seattle symphonies, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. This winter he makes his Zurich Opera debut conducting Verdi’s Rigoletto, which he will also lead in concert versions at the Luxembourg Philharmonic and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.