Jonathon Heyward

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced on Thursday that it had chosen Jonathon Heyward, 29, an African American conductor, as its next music director. He will begin a five-year contract in Baltimore at the start of the 2023-24 season. Heyward will succeed Marin Alsop.

Heyward, who grew up in Charleston, S.C., the son of an African American father and a white mother, will be the first person of color to lead the orchestra in its 106-year history.

Heyward, who is the chief conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Germany, began studying cello at 10. A graduate of the Boston Conservatory, he later served as an assistant conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in England, under its longtime music director, Mark Elder.

https://www.pizzicato.lu/jonathon-heyward-named-chief-conductor-of-nordwestdeutsche-philharmonie/