New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure in September 2009, launching what New York magazine called “a fresh future for the Philharmonic.” The first native New Yorker to hold the post, he has sought to make the Orchestra a point of civic pride for the city as well as for the country.

Mr. Gilbert's creative approach to programming combines works in fresh and innovative ways. He has also forged artistic partnerships, introducing the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, held in the 2011–12 season by Magnus Lindberg and violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, respectively; an annual three-week festival, which this season is The Modern Beethoven, conducted by David Zinman; and CONTACT!, the new-music series in which Philharmonic musicians perform works by today's leading and emerging composers in New York's more intimate venues.

In the 2011–12 season Alan Gilbert conducts world premieres of works by John Corigliano, Marc Neikrug, and Magnus Lindberg; three Mahler symphonies, including the Second, Resurrection, on A Concert for New York on September 10; the Orchestra's first International Associates residency at London’s Barbican Centre, as part of its EUROPE / WINTER 2012 tour, and the CALIFORNIA / SPRING 2012 tour; and the season-concluding musical exploration of space at the Park Avenue Armory that features Stockhausen’s theatrical immersion, Gruppen. He also made his Philharmonic debut as soloist when he joined Frank Peter Zimmermann in J.S. Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in October 2011.

Last season's highlights included two tours of European music capitals, Carnegie Hall's 120th Anniversary Concert, and the acclaimed performance of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen, hailed by The Washington Post as "another victory," building on 2010's wildly successful staging of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, which The New York Times called "an instant Philharmonic milestone." Other highpoints of Mr. Gilbert's 2010–11 Philharmonic season included performances of Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 and Kindertotenlieder; the New York premieres of Magnus Lindberg's groundbreaking Kraft and Thomas Adès's multimedia In Seven Days; Mendelssohn's Elijah; and both programs in the Philharmonic's CONTACT! series. Mr. Gilbert also appeared with Philharmonic musicians as violinist on a Saturday Matinee Concert, a tradition that he introduced in the 2009–10 season and that he continues this year.

In his inaugural season Mr. Gilbert took the Orchestra abroad for the first time as Music Director — on the Asia Horizons tour in October 2009, which included the Philharmonic's Vietnam debut at the historic Hanoi Opera House — and the nine-city EUROPE / WINTER 2010 TOUR in February 2010, which prompted Gramophone to write: "By turning their back on Europe and going for their first native New Yorker, the NYP has made a magnificent choice: energizing, contemporary, inclusive and, if tonight's combination of great programming and superb playing is anything to go by, hugely positive for the future." Mr. Gilbert also led a performance at Carnegie Hall, commemorating the 65th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein's Philharmonic debut; two concerts in the CONTACT! series, with a program of world premieres; and the season-concluding performances of Beethoven's Missa solemnis coupled with the World Premiere of Magnus Lindberg's Al largo. "The Philharmonic has been playing splendidly for Mr. Gilbert," wrote The New York Times, reflecting on the season, "and he is emerging as a cultural leader in New York."

In September 2011 Alan Gilbert became Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he is also the first holder of Juilliard's William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. Conductor Laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras nationally and internationally, such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic. In the 2011–12 season his engagements include the Munich Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Royal Swedish Opera, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.

Alan Gilbert made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in November 2008 leading John Adams's Doctor Atomic, which was broadcast live in high definition to movie theaters around the world. A subsequent DVD release of the production, available on Sony Classical, won the 2012 Grammy Award® for Best Opera Recording. Mr. Gilbert's other recordings have been nominated for Grammy Awards® and have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. He studied at Harvard University, The Curtis Institute of Music, and The Juilliard School, and served as the assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra (1995–97). In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music.