The Colmar Music Festival announced the appointment of 47-year-old French conductor Alain Altinoglu as artistic director for its 33rd edition in July 2023. Altinoglu is Music Director of the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels since 2016 and until 2025 and of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (since last season.
In Colmar Altinoglu succeeds Vladimir Spivakov, who had been conducting the festival since 1989. The Russian musician supported the Russian intervention in Crimea in 2014, but signed a tribune with other personalities of the Russian artistic world calling for the end of hostilities in Ukraine. Nevertheless he is considered being a supporter of Putin.