Switzerland's Zurich Opera Extends Music Director Contract

Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda will continue his role with the orchestra for an additional three years until the 2027/28 concert season

Gianandrea Noseda was appointed general music director of the Zurich Opera in 2018 for the 2021/22 season, succeeding Fabio Luisi in the position. At the request of the designated director Matthias Schulz, Noseda’s contract was extended through to 2028. 

Noseda, 58, will be part of the opera’s new management under Schulz, who will assume the intendant and artistic director role of the Zurich Opera after Andreas Homoki from the 2025/26 season. They will work closely with the acting opera director Annette Weber and the future ballet director Cathy Marston.

“I am very happy to extend my collaboration with the Zurich Opera House in 2025 for three more seasons in collaboration with Matthias Schulz,” Noseda said. “It will give us all the opportunity to deepen and build on what we have already achieved. I am also very happy to continue the incredibly versatile Philharmonia Zurich both in the orchestra pit as well as on the concert podium.”

“Since I took office as General Music Director in September 2021, my impression of the Zurich Opera House as one of the best opera houses in the world has only deepened,” he continued. “I love the way this opera house works, the seriousness and quality with which people work and the openness and productivity with which people meet.”

Alongside his position in Zurich, Noseda is music director of Washington, D.C’s National Symphony Orchestra — where he also received a contract extension — and principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, he became the music director of Georgia’s Tsinandali Festival and Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra. 

“Noseda is one of the top-class conductors of our time, who is just as at home in the opera as in the concert,” Schulz added. “Within just a few months of his first term as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera House, he managed to leave a formative artistic fingerprint. 

“He enjoys a high level of acceptance and recognition among the staff of the opera house, the audience and the media,” he continued. “Through his winning personality and high level of professionalism, he was able to establish a close relationship with all artistic ensembles. I am very much looking forward to continuing this successful work and developing new programmatic lines with me.”