Alan Gilbert (conductor)

American conductor and violinist

Alan Gilbert (born February 23, 1967) is an American conductor and violinist. He is Principal Conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Music Director of Royal Swedish Opera. He was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 2009 to 2017.

Gilbert was born in New York City. He is the son of two New York Philharmonic violinists, Michael Gilbert and Yoko Takebe, both now retired from the orchestra. Growing up in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Gilbert attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Riverdale, where he was a top student. As a youth, he learned the violin, viola, and piano. His sister, Jennifer Gilbert, also studied violin, and became a professional violinist. In the 1980s, Gilbert studied music at Harvard University, where he was the music director of the Harvard Bach Society Orchestra in 1988–89. While in Boston, Gilbert also studied with violinist Masuko Ushioda at the New England Conservatory of Music. After obtaining his degree at Harvard, Gilbert studied conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School of Music with Otto Werner Mueller. In 1994, he won the Georg Solti prize, which garnered him a week's private tutoring with Maestro Solti. Also in 1994, Gilbert won first prize at the International Competition for Musical Performance in Geneva.

From 1995 until 1997, Gilbert was an assistant conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1997, he won the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award.

Gilbert's long association with Santa Fe Opera dates back to 1993, when he served as the orchestra's assistant concertmaster. Prior to that, both of Gilbert's parents played in the opera's orchestra, and his father served as concertmaster for a number of years. In 2001, Gilbert conducted his first Santa Fe Opera production, Verdi's Falstaff. In 2003, he became Santa Fe Opera's first music director. His initial contract concluded at the end of the 2006 season. In November 2006, it was reported that Gilbert was to be on "official sabbatical from June through August 2007" to spend more time with his family. In May 2007, Santa Fe Opera announced that Gilbert had officially concluded his tenure as their music director, as of 2006.

Gilbert built much of his reputation conducting contemporary and American music, and his New York Philharmonic appointment marked somewhat of a shift by the orchestra away from his more conservative predecessors Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, and Zubin Mehta. He was the first New York City born conductor to be named music director of the New York Philharmonic. For his inaugural 2009/10 Philharmonic season, Gilbert introduced a number of new initiatives, including the presence of Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg and Artist in Residence Thomas Hampson. The festivals and tours he introduced include CONTACT – the Philharmonic's new music series; and a major tour of Asia and the Middle East in October 2009, with debuts in Hanoi and Abu Dhabi. In February 2015, the orchestra announced the scheduled conclusion of Gilbert's tenure as music director at the end of the 2016–2017 season. Gilbert is the first person to hold the William Schuman chair in Musical Studies at the Juilliard School. The position includes coaching, conducting, and performance master classes. Gilbert assumed the post in the fall of 2009. In June 2017, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (formerly the NDR Symphony Orchestra) announced the appointment of Gilbert as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2019–2020 season, with an initial contract of 5 seasons. He had the title of chief conductor designate from 2017 until his 2019 advent. In February 2023, the orchestra announced the extension of Gilbert's contract as chief conductor through the summer of 2029. In 2012, Gilbert made his first conducting appearance with the Royal Swedish Opera. In January 2020, the Royal Swedish Opera announced the appointment of Gilbert as its next music director, effective in the spring of 2021.

In 2002, Gilbert married Swedish cellist Kajsa William Olsson, a member of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. They have three children, Lia, Noemi, and Esra. The family has residences in New York City and Sweden.