Artist Profile: Alan T. Gilbert ’89 on Conducting, Repertoire Philosophy, and Musical Inspiration

Conductor and violinist Alan T. Gilbert ’89 has come a long way since his undergraduate years at Harvard.

After studying with violinist Masuko Ushioda at New England Conservatory during his time in Boston and completing further conducting studies at Juilliard and Curtis, he made his first splash on the American stage as assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1995 to 1997. 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. He took the opportunity to program works by his composer friends, study composition himself, serve as music director from 1988 to 1989 of Harvard’s largest student-run orchestra, the Bach Society Orchestra, and conduct the Lowell House Opera. 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. 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. Nevertheless, he named Sweden and Germany as his artistic and personal homes, a far cry from the bustling intersections of New York City where he grew up. His wife is Swedish cellist Kajsa William-Olsson, a member of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and his sister Jennifer Gilbert now plays as concertmaster of the Orchestre National de Lyon. 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. It was an amazing opportunity to work with such a fabulous workshop. 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. 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. 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. 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. Honoring his violinist roots helps him to continue understanding the orchestra from an instrumentalist’s perspective, and as a conductor, the opportunity to work with different orchestras has kept him flexible and sensitive to the unique demands of each.

His robust artistic vision has undoubtedly ensured he is one of the most in-demand conductors today, with his dedication to expose audience members to as diverse an œuvre as possible. 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. Beyond educational measures to raise awareness of music’s place in society, Gilbert reaffirmed a musician’s fundamental purpose to make music with as much passion and commitment as possible, with qualities such as communicativeness and generosity underpinning a profound “desire to build human connections.” Echoing the call of fellow Harvard alumnus and conductor Leonard Bernstein ’39 to make music “more devotedly than ever before” in times of crisis, Gilbert reiterated his resistance to cynicism and the responsibility he feels to use music to highlight peoples’ connections rather than differences.

“I think the best thing we can do is to lead by example and to live a life that really underlines the belief we have in the power of music and the power of art and the importance of culture in our society,” Gilbert said.

Alan Gilbert will conduct a program of Haydn symphonies and Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, running at Symphony Hall from Feb. 20 to 22.

—Staff writer Lara R. Tan can be reached at lara.tan@thecrimson.com.