Young Conductors
The appointment of Andris Nelsons as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) marks an end to more than three years in the wilderness for a venerable musical institution. At 35, Mr Nelsons will be the orchestra’s youngest director for more than a century. The appointment builds on a recent trend among America’s top ensembles for hiring leaders who could be the youngest people in the concert hall. For Mr Nelsons, this may represent a normal changing of the guard. But something else seems to be at work here. This new raft of conductors also reflects a wider desire to rebrand an art form that has come to be seen as the exclusive property of the grey-haired and well-heeled.