Biography
Cristian Măcelaru will serve as the Shepherd School of Music’s Distinguished Visiting Artist from the 2025-26 season through 2027-28.
GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor Cristian Măcelaru is Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Orchestre National de France, Artistic Director of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Interlochen Center for the Arts’ World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Music Director and Conductor of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and Distinguished Visiting Artist at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He also serves as Artistic Partner of the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne, where he was Chief Conductor from the 2019/20 through 2024/25 seasons.
2025/26 marks Măcelaru’s inaugural season as Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where his programming reflects his expansive artistic vision and dedication to both tradition and innovation. Măcelaru launches the season with a blended program of classical masterworks and contemporary pieces. In March, Măcelaru and the Interlochen Center for the Arts embark on a tour celebrating the upcoming centennial of Interlochen and the 250th anniversary of American independence, with concerts beginning at the Center’s home in Interlochen, Michigan, and continuing through Detroit, Philadelphia and Boston.
With the George Enescu International Festival, Măcelaru curates a four-week concert schedule highlighting world-class orchestras in multiple international premieres and interpretations of classical music’s finest repertoire. Beginning at the festival, Măcelaru conducts the Orchestre National de France on a tour through Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria. In November, Orchestre National de France takes on a three-night tour in the United States with pianist Daniil Trifonov, culminating in an appearance at Carnegie Hall. In another Enescu Festival highlight, Măcelaru conducts the WDR Sinfonieorchester in a concert performance of Strauss’s Salome. Later in the season, he conducts the orchestra in three concert programs in Cologne and across western Germany. Măcelaru’s 2025/26 guest engagements include debuts with the Münchner Philharmoniker and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, as well as returns with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Czech Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony.
Măcelaru’s previous seasons include European engagements with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Concertgebouworkest, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker. In North America, he has led the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra. He is equally at home as a conductor of opera, with career highlights including productions of Don Giovanni with the Houston Grand Opera and Madama Butterfly with Opera Națională București.
In 2020, Măcelaru received a GRAMMY® Award for conducting the Decca Classics recording of Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto with Nicola Benedetti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His highly anticipated recording of George Enescu’s complete symphonic works with the Orchestre National de France was released in April 2024 on Deutsche Grammophon. September 2025 marks the release of Măcelaru’s and the Orchestre National de France’s Ravel Paris 2025 album on the naïve label, featuring the symphonic works of Maurice Ravel in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
