Tokyo Symphony Orchestra announced today that conductor Lorenzo Viotti will become the Orchestra’s next Music Director, beginning in the 2026/27 season. The initial agreement is for three years.

Born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1990, Viotti, now 34, is Chief Conductor of the Dutch National Opera and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. He already regularly conducts many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and in June 2024 he led a tour of Germany, Switzerland and Spain with the Vienna Philharmonic. In opera, in addition to the Dutch National Opera, he conducted Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (new production) directed by Daniele Abbado at La Scala in February 2024 and Kalman’s Die Csardasfurstin at the Zurich Opera in April 2024. He is currently sought after by many of most prestigious orchestras and opera houses.

Mr. Viotti’s debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra was at the Tokyo Opera City Series in July 2014. This was not only his Japanese debut, but also his professional orchestral debut. He showed a wide variety of musicality and has since collaborated with the orchestra a total of five times, in 2016, 2019 (twice) and 2023. In 2024, ten years after their first collaboration, he will be welcomed as the orchestra’s music director.

We hope you’ll be looking forward to Mr. Viotti and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra as it continues to evolve.

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra

Lorenzo VIOTTI

The Tokyo Symphony was my first professional orchestra in my career. With no experience in an orchestra of this level, I remember being wonderfully welcomed by its musicians. Their loyalty, love, and passion for this art are things that have not changed over the years. Classical music in Japan is a significant cultural pillar, and I am deeply touched and honored to contribute to its continuity. I look forward to starting this musical day and sharing my passion for this art with the Japanese audience and the wonderful musicians of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.

Lorenzo Viotti is to be Music Director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in the 2026/27 season.

One of the most dynamic conductors of his generation, Lorenzo Viotti is currently Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dutch National Opera, where he conducts two much-anticipated productions in the 2024/2025 season: The Amsterdam premiere of Barrie Kosky’s celebrated Die Fledermaus and a new production of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, directed by Barbara Horáková. He also continues his relationship with Oper Zürich with a new production of Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt, directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov.

His symphonic season features his return to the United States for his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In Europe, to deepen his relationships with leading symphony orchestras, he returns to the Filharmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Gürzenich Orchestra, Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, where he was Chief Conductor from 2018-2021. Furthermore, he makes his debut with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and closes the season with concerts with the Vienna Symphony. Viotti concludes his tenure as Music Director of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra with six varied programs in the Concertgebouw and a tour within the Netherlands.

Highly esteemed as symphonic guest conductor, Lorenzo Viotti has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including e.g. Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Saxon State Orchestra Dresden, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra.

Born into a French-Italian musical family in Lausanne, Lorenzo Viotti studied piano, singing, and percussion in Lyon and attended orchestral conducting courses with Professor Georg Mark in Vienna, where he also performed as percussionist with numerous renowned orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic. He completed his conducting studies with Nicolas Pasquet at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar and has won several prestigious conducting competitions, most notably the Nestlé Young Conductors Award at the Salzburg Festival in 2015, the 11th International Conducting Competition of the Cadaqués Orchestra, and the MDR Symphony Orchestra Conductors Competition, and in 2017 was honoured as “Newcomer of the Year” at the International Opera Awards in London.