The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announced on Oct. 17 the appointment of James Conlon, conductor laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival, as its Artistic Advisor. Conlon will begin his role in September 2021, following the conclusion of BSO Music Director Marin Alsop’s historic 14-year tenure.

Conlon has affirmed that he is not a candidate in the BSO’s upcoming Music Director search. The orchestra plans a “multi-year, international search” of visiting conductors beginning in its 2021-22 season.

Conlon will be leading three concert weeks per year in each of the 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 seasons, and will fill duties off the podium, such as fill orchestral vacancies. Ironically, his first appearance will mark his debut with the Baltimore Symphony.

He has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic, and choral repertoire, having conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra since his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1974. As Music Director of LA Opera, he has led more performances than any other conductor in the company’s history, and his recordings of LA Opera productions have received four Grammy Awards.

Conlon is Conductor Laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival, where he served as Music Director for 37 years, one of the longest tenures of any director of an American classical music institution.

He has also served as Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra (Torino, Italy); Music Director of the Ravinia Festival; Principal Conductor of the Paris Opera; General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Besides his more than 270 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, he has conducted opera in houses around the globe.

Saying he was looking forward to the appointment, Conlon praised Marin Alsop, whom he has known for decades, for being “a leader in imaginative and relevant programming.”

“I am particularly enthusiastic to work together with her in order to assure the succession process for the orchestra’s future,” he said in a statement.