The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has announced the news that Mark Wigglesworth and Chloé van Soeterstède have been appointed as chief conductor and principal guest conductor respectively. They will both take on these new roles from the start of the 2024/25 season, each for a four-year term.
Mark Wigglesworth takes over from Kirill Karabits, who moves on from his 15-year tenure as chief conductor to a new role as conductor laureate and artistic director of Voices from the East, the BSO's programme that celebrates music not previously performed by major European orchestras.
Wigglesworth has worked with the orchestra since 2021 as principal guest conductor, a role that is now passed on to Chloé van Soeterstède, a French conductor and former Dudamel Fellow with the LA Philharmonic. She is also a former fellow of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, a mentoring programme for female conductors headed up by coductor Marin Alsop with the financial support of Tomio Taki.
She made her debut with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 2022, and since then has given debuted performances in the UK with the Philharmonia and the Hallé; in Europe with the Bilbao Symphony, Norrkoping Symphony and Lausanne Chamber Orchestras; in the US with the Colorado Springs Symphony and at the Lincoln Center, New York; and further afield with the Auckland Philharmonia, Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras.
Wigglesworth is the first British conductor to hold the chief role at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in over 60 years.
