Fabio Luisi, Chief Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra: Term extended until August 2028

What's newAug 29, 2023

The NHK Symphony Orchestra (based in Tokyo, Chairman: Keiichi Imamura) has extended its three-year contract with Fabio Luisi, who assumed the position of chief conductor in September 2022, by further three years until August 2028.

In the 2022-23 season, his first season after assuming the post, Fabio Luisi conducted Verdi's Requiem to commemorate his appointment in September. He also presented works of German and Austrian composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and R. Strauss as well as those of Franck and Saint-Saëns, Francophone composers, in the season. His conducting style full of passion and poetic sentiment captured the hearts of many of our audience members.

In the orchestra’s 2000th subscription concert in December 2023, he will conduct Mahler's Symphony No. 8 Symphonie der Tausend. In May 2025, the NHK Symphony Orchestra has been invited to the Mahler Festival Amsterdam, which will be followed by a European concert tour. We are convinced that such activities will further enhance the reputation of the NHK Symphony Orchestra both at home and abroad. The NHK Symphony Orchestra, which will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2026, will bring you very attractive programs together with Fabio Luisi in many of our commemorative concerts. We hope that more and more classical music fans will enjoy our performances under the baton of Fabio Luisi, not only in concerts but also through television and radio broadcasts.

Message from Fabio Luisi

Dear Audience of NHK Symphony Orchestra concerts, dear friends of NHK.

We are offering you a broad, broad spectrum of classical music, with very interesting choices of soloists and conductors. And our activities are very varied, we are offering concerts for families, we are offering small chamber concerts before our subscription concerts. I will be conducting most of our concerts and am very proud and happy about it.
Also in 2025, we have been invited to the Mahler Festival in Amsterdam, which is the most important festival concerning Mahler’s music, and we are one of the few chosen selected orchestras in the world, which I am happy about. You cannot just go there, you need to be invited. NHK has been invited under my direction to play concerts in Amsterdam, and we are embarking on a very important European Tour surrounding these important concerts.
So, our activity is very, very lovely and very strong. We have received great attention internationally. NHK Symphony Orchestra has been recognized as one of the major symphonic orchestras in the world, and this is very important that you the audience, my fans, the pubic who are attending our concerts stay true to us, because we love you and we are playing for you.

BIOGRAPHY

Fabio Luisi hails from Genoa, Italy. He is chief conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Fabio Luisi’s previous posts include general music director of the Opernhaus Zürich, principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera (2011-2017), principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (2005-2013), general music director of the Dresden Staatskapelle and Sächsische Staatsoper (2007-2010), artistic director and principal conductor of the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig (1999-2007), music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1997-2002), and principal conductor of the Vienna Tonkünstler-Orchester. Luisi is also music director of the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, Italy.

He regularly appears as guest conductor with numerous renowned orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, Filarmonica della Scala, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Saito Kinen Orchestra, as well as on the stages of the world’s most distinguished opera houses.　

The 2023/24 season include his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, his return to the podium of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra followed by a tour in Japan. With the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, he will embark on a new recording series of the complete music of Aleksandr Scriabin for the renowned Deutsche Grammophon label in addition to the season concerts in Copenhagen. Luisi’s 2023/24 season with the Dallas Symphony will feature monumental works, and will conclude with the first two operas in Wagner’s epic Ring cycle, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. The DSO and Luisi will continue the complete cycle in the 2024/25 season.

Luisi is a leading interpreter of Italian opera and late Romantic repertoire. He has appeared at the Salzburg Festival conducting performances of Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae and Die Ägyptische Helena. His appearances at the Opernhaus Zürich include premieres of new productions of three Bellini operas, Rigoletto, Fidelio, Wozzeck and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.

Fabio Luisi’s recent recordings include operas by Verdi and Bellini, the oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln by Franz Schmidt, works by Schumann, and the complete symphonies of Honegger. In addition, he has recorded numerous symphonic poems by Richard Strauss with the Staatskapelle Dresden. His lauded recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 received the Echo Music Prize, and his recordings of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra were honored with Grammy Awards. In recognition of these achievements, in 2013 Luisi received the Premio Franco Abbiati, the coveted Italian critics’ prize, and in 2014 he was awarded the Grifo d’Oro by the city of Genoa, his hometown.

Additionally, the Philharmonia Records recording label, founded by the Philharmonia Zürich in 2015, has issued CD recordings of works by Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Rachmaninoff, Bruckner, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Frank Martin under Maestro Luisi’s musical directorship, as well as DVD recordings of Rigoletto, Wozzeck, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and Verdi’s Requiem (Ballett Zürich).

Fabio Luisi was awarded the Anton Bruckner Ring by the Wiener Symphoniker, and named both Cavaliere of the Italian Republic and Commendatore della Stella d’Italia.