Cristian Măcelaru prepares for a historic season at the CSO

The 2025-2026 season will mark an exciting new chapter for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with Cristian Măcelaru taking over as Music Director. The Romanian conductor, now 44, will lead a dynamic and carefully crafted selection of performances, including nearly a third of the subscription programs and a special collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma. His season will range from contemporary co-commissions such as Lisa Bielawa’s PULSE (November 29 and 30) and Daníel Bjarnason’s I Want to Be Alive-Trilogy for Orchestra (January 10 and 11) to beloved symphonic classics.

Măcelaru’s approach to programming reflects a deep fascination with cultural identity and the role of music in society. His experience spans both European and American orchestras, conducting such esteemed ensembles as the Orchestre National de France and the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, as well as the Cabrillo Festival and the World Youth Symphony Orchestra in Interlochen.

This dual perspective shapes his view of the CSO – “In Europe, orchestras thrive in a climate of artistic competition, often coexisting in cities with several major ensembles,” he explains. “But American orchestras are different – they are deeply rooted in their communities. The Cincinnati Symphony stood out for me because of its longstanding commitment to education, outreach and diversity. These values have been part of its mission for more than 15 years.”

In a phone call from his home in Paris, Măcelaru spoke with Fanfare contributor Hannah Edgar about some of the music he’ll be conducting next season. Her answers are condensed and edited below.

Măcelaru’s first opening as music director, with Hélène Grimaud in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F (October 3-4)

Gershwin’s symphonic work isn’t exactly huge, but what he has done is remarkable. I consider it sophisticated in the same sense that an excellent performance of Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz is sophisticated. On the surface, you think, “Oh, that’s nice,” but when you start to look at what it takes to perform this music at that level, it’s one of the most difficult things. Trying to play a perfect waltz, with the rhythm and all the other elements, is virtually impossible. It’s a real world of discovery for the orchestra. So I wanted to have [Gershwin] on opening night with Hélène Grimaud, who is an absolute rock star. I’ve worked with Hélène in the past and we know each other well.

I’m also extremely excited about Abstraction, Anna Clyne’s piece. It’s such a beautiful work and, like Gershwin, seems quite easy at first. Anna sometimes has the whole orchestra play a single line of music in unison. People might perceive this as extremely simple, but it’s actually the most difficult aspect to accomplish as an orchestra. Every time I have played Anna’s music, which is many times, I realize that I have to spend an incredible amount of time to make the orchestra really understand how the simplicity of a musical line must be a universe in itself.

The Rosenkavalier Suite in this concert alludes to the huge German immigrant community that came to Cincinnati. Their tradition of singing led to the May Festival, which led to the city building a concert hall for them, which then led to the creation of the symphony to meet the needs of the chorus. It all ties back to this Germanic tradition of singing. Rosenkavalier combines this past with a festive start to the season.

Yo-Yo Ma performs Elgar and George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 (November 4)

The first time I met Yo-Yo at Tanglewood, he snuck into my dressing room at the end of the first rehearsal. He’s always surrounded by a million people, but at Tanglewood there’s a secret door between the conductor’s booth and the soloist’s booth. I heard a little knock on the secret door, and Yo-Yo walked in. He said, “I want to know about your people. … I want to understand who you are, where you come from.” I told him about my father, my mother; I told him about my upbringing, my family. … They called us on stage, and he said, “Wait, wait, I need another minute. Keep talking.”

Forget art, forget the great cellist Yo-Yo – that meant so much to me as a human being. We define and redefine who we want to be as we grow up, don’t we? But it’s so important to recognize where we come from. If people around us understand our cultural context, this is the only way to a more peaceful world.

That is why I put an Enescu piece in this concert. It was my gift back to him, saying, “This is me”. But I also want to present this to the people of Cincinnati. Enescu is a personal hero and a personality that I respected as a composer and as a human being. I discovered that Enescu was in Cincinnati four times, as a conductor and violinist, and he conducted this piece with the Cincinnati Symphony. He didn’t conduct many [American] orchestras, by the way. When I discovered this, I thought, ‘My God, this is perfect.’ The stars aligned.

Symphony No. 7 by Dvořák, along with Variations on a Shaker Melody by Aaron Copland and Tales: A Folklore Symphony by Carlos Simon (November 29 and 30)

This concert and “American Voices” [January 16 and 17] are practically sisters. I’ve already performed Carlos’ symphony and I like that it’s a very different take on the same subject as Wynton’s. It’s much more in a “traditional classical” form than in a jazz style. I wanted to have this pull between Copland and Dvořák, who define what America is, and Carlos, who brings his own experience into a similar language. The friction between these stories is what ultimately represents the texture of America.

When Dvořák wrote the Seventh Symphony, he was not yet connected to America the way he was in the Ninth Symphony. But I bring it as an example of the concept of creating a cultural identity through a healthy, positive nationalism, not the concept of nationalism that was distorted in the 20th century. This was the most important work for him in becoming a nationalist composer.

Handel’s Messiah (December 5-6)

If there is comfort music in the same way there is comfort food, then Messiah is for me. The truth is, since living in Europe, I haven’t played as much Messiah as I did when I lived in the States.

Some people might think I’m joking, but I really miss him. The more I play it, the more I discover how brilliant it is. Mozart was so impressed by the music that he decided to reorchestrate it. If it was good enough for Mozart, I think it’s good enough for me.

“American Voices” with Blues Symphony by Wynton Marsalis and new original poems by Rita Dove (January 16 and 17)

Wynton is a very, very close friend, I discovered him and his friendship through music, just like Yo-Yo. Every page of his music urges you to discover something that he’s trying to refer to. Often he will write: ‘This should sound like that jazz performer from that year’, ‘this should sound like that city’. It’s literally an encyclopedia of American arts. I also think it’s not possible to talk about the American experience without allowing the people who built this country to tell their story.

This program is, of course, very closely tied to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is a time to reflect, to understand the story of who we really are as Americans. I firmly believe that the purpose of the arts is to compel you to ask questions, rather than give you cheap answers.

I asked the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove to write a poem on this theme, as she is a musician herself. My only request was that she follow the dramatic line of Barber’s Adagio for Strings. That’s amazing about it, as well as [Margaret Bonds’] Montgomery Variations: it doesn’t force you to feel a certain way. It encourages you to understand a perspective that doesn’t need words to be understood, because it relates to emotions and feelings that [people] have experienced themselves. The best we can do is allow ourselves to be touched by them.

Article translated and adapted. Source – official website CSO.