.

Semi-staged productions of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Janácek's Cunning Little Vixen, and Stravinsky's Petrushka have been presented to critical acclaim and capacity audiences.

Other guest engagements this season include guest weeks with the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and the NDR Symphony Hamburg, as well as returns to the Metropolitan Opera, where he will conduct Don Giovanni with Peter Mattei in the title role, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he gives that organization's first-ever performances of Janácek's Glagolitic Mass.

With the New York Philharmonic, Gilbert conducts programs including a pairing of Mahler's First Symphony with the U.S.

premiere of Unsuk Chin's Clarinet Concerto; La Dolce Vita: Music of Italian Cinema featuring Joshua Bell, Renée Fleming, and Josh Groban; Verdi's Requiem; a staging of Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher featuring Oscar winner Marion Cotillard; and an evening with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Gilbert regularly appears with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

His recordings have also received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. He initiated annual residencies for composers (with Magnus Lindberg the first appointment) and leading performing artists (this season, violinist Lisa Batiashvili and pianist Inon Barnatan). In 2017, he concluded an eight-year tenure as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic that was widely regarded as transformative.

Having such family connections in Europe means that Europe has never been far from Gilbert’s mind.

“A lot of my life has been sort of pulling in the direction of Europe, and the eight years as music director with the New York Philharmonic were absolutely a golden period in my life. To follow were engagements with companies as diverse and prominent as the Santa Fe Opera, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, and, as he may be most fondly remembered, music director of the New York Philharmonic from 2009 to 2017.

In between engagements in Hamburg and Boston, Gilbert sat down with The Crimson to discuss his artistic horizons and musical inspirations across his illustrious career.

Gilbert previously spoke to The Crimson in 2009 and 2014 about his time at Harvard, but for the unacquainted reader, he built up a whopping roster of close to a hundred performances during his undergraduate career — averaging out to no less than one concert a week.

It was an amazing opportunity to work with such a fabulous workshop. He reiterated his core belief that audiences get more out of the works of canonical composers when juxtaposed with contrasting works, often more contemporary in nature and origin.

“I think it’s important for the field of Music (with a capital ‘M’) to support contemporary composers and to let them know that what they’re doing is valid and important and adds to the future canon of music,” Gilbert said.

At the time of The Crimson’s conversation with Gilbert, he was in the middle of the NDR Elbphilharmonie’s Visions festival, consisting entirely of 21st-century music.

“I know how difficult it is, and I know how much dedication it takes and how much faith you have to keep even when things are hard and when you don't get opportunities to have your pieces performed,” Gilbert said.

He emphasized his gratification that audiences were not turned away by his ambitious programming choices and reaffirmed his impetus to challenge audiences to explore music outside the canon of symphonic works like those of Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and the like.

Especially in an increasingly turbulent world with a trend of diminishing public support of the arts, Gilbert finds himself invigorated by the challenge of keeping music relevant in the societies he calls his homes.

Gilbert also continues to perform in summer festivals as a violinist, and travels to Japan every year to work as principal guest conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. The rootedness and security felt in these posts is a testament to the career he has built since his days fresh out of Harvard, when he had to prove himself as a guest conductor before securing more long-term posts as an assistant conductor and finally music director.

“I think I’m extremely lucky in that I’m chief conductor in places where I really want to be, where I feel like I can make good music and make a difference.

He has also conducted operas for the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Zurich Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, where he served as the inaugural Music Director. Renée Fleming's recent Decca recording "Poèmes", on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. His daughter, Noemi S. William-Olsson Gilbert ’27, is an English concentrator in Dunster House similarly involved in the Harvard music scene as a violinist in the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.

“I’m sure she’s getting more academically out of [her Harvard experience] than I did,” Gilbert said, alluding humorously to his own academic record: He made the last-minute decision to switch from an English to a Music concentration after being unable to fulfill the graduation requirements for English.

Apart from his family life bringing him back to Boston, Gilbert maintains strong ties with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a guest conductor.

But I’m also able to choose a few select orchestras to work as a guest conductor,” Gilbert said.

Working primarily in his home bases of Germany and Sweden — in addition to Boston and Cleveland — allows him to deepen relationships with friends and colleagues who are similarly situated. At Harvard, he developed not only his musical sensibilities in programming and performing but also crucial know-how on making a performance happen, from printing flyers and sheet music to ensuring his concerts sold out.

While Gilbert may have since left Harvard's student-run music scene, he currently has another serendipitous opportunity to relive his undergraduate career.

But at the same time, I’ve always felt very comfortable making music in Europe,” Gilbert said.

In Europe, Gilbert has served as Chief Conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra since 2019, as well as Music Director of the Royal Swedish Opera since 2022. He has led operatic productions for the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Zurich Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, where he served as the first appointed Music Director and conducted repertoire including Carmen, Eugene Onegin, Falstaff, and Peter Grimes among other works.