BOSTON WELCOMES ANDRIS NELSONS AS THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S NEW MUSIC DIRECTOR!

Marking a new era in the 134-year history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons will make his highly anticipated debut as the BSO's new music director on Saturday, September 27, at 8 p.m. at Symphony Hall. When Mr. Nelsons takes on the title of BSO Music Director on September 27, he will be, at age 35, the youngest conductor to hold that title with the orchestra in over 100 years. The fifteenth music director since the Boston Symphony Orchestra's founding in 1881, Mr. Nelsons is also the first Latvian-born conductor to assume the post.

For this celebratory occasion marking his first concert as BSO Music Director, Andris Nelsons will open the September 27 program with the overture to Wagner's Tannhäuser-the first live opera Nelsons ever heard as a child and the work that would set him on the path of becoming a conductor-putting a meaningful focus on this exciting new collaboration between conductor and orchestra. The acclaimed soprano Kristine Opolais, Mr. Nelsons' wife, and Jonas Kaufmann, one of the leading tenors of our time, will be featured in several beloved operatic masterworks, including solo and duet works by Wagner and Puccini. The orchestra and Mr. Nelsons will return to center stage for the concert's grand finale performance of Respighi's dazzling showpiece Pines of Rome.

On Tuesday, September 23-as part of this week's festivities celebrating Andris Nelsons' debut as BSO Music Director-a brass fanfare, written especially for the occasion by John Williams, will herald the start of an extraordinary gala party in honor of Andris Nelsons, who will be accompanied by his wife, Kristine Opolais. This memorable and momentous event will take place in festively adorned Symphony Hall, with an evening richly programmed to reflect this most recent milestone in the storied history of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1881.

On May 16, 2013, Andris Nelsons was appointed the 15th Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since its founding in 1881. Mr. Nelsons succeeds James Levine, who was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2011.