Gustavo Dudamel has been named the 27^th Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic, stepping into a role once occupied by Gustav Mahler and Leonard Bernstein. The 42-year-old Venezuelan conductor will take up the new post at the start of the 2026-27 season, taking on the role of Music Director Designate the season before. He first conducted the NYPO in 2007, aged 26, and has conducted them as a guest on 26 occasions. He will step down as the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (where he has been since 2009) at the end of the 2025-26 season when his current contract expires.

The appointment was not unexpected, though the timing was. Many thought that the NYPO would wait until Deborah Borda, its President and CEO – and who had appointed Dudamel to the LAPO when she occupied the same role there – stepped down this summer. It is, though, a coup for her, and her track record in appointing musicians who grow immeasurably on the job is second to none. Dudamel will also have the newly re-opened David Geffen Hall to work in.

‘My time with the LA Phil has been, and will continue to be, the most transformative period of my life,’ Dudamel said. ‘I have learned so much, grown so much, and together we have created something truly unique and beautiful — not only with this incredible orchestra, but in the community that we have built around ourselves.’

He continued ‘Today, above all, I am grateful. I am grateful to the musicians and leadership of the New York Philharmonic as we embark upon this new and beautiful journey together; to my beloved family at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and YOLA [the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles] for helping me to learn and grow through countless challenges and triumphs; and to my Maestro Abreu [the conductor who was a mentor during Dudamel’s youth in Caracas] and the musicians of Venezuela who have been there with me since the beginning. As the great poet Federico García Lorca said: “Every step we take on earth brings us to a new world”.’

Dudamel is also Music Director of the Opéra National de Paris (a post he has occupied since 2021) and Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. His next appearances with his new orchestra will be for Mahler’s Ninth Symphony in May.