French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann named new music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

A bright future awaits the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, as it welcomes its new Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann. The acclaimed French conductor and contralto singer, who also concurrently guests with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and leads the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway, will conduct the ASO in concert on Oct. 13 and 14. She joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to talk about the special kinship she’s always felt with the Atlanta orchestra, and the music they’re about to perform together for the first time.

Stutzmann began her collaboration with the Atlanta Symphony as guest conductor for a digitally streamed concert in December of 2020 and says she felt an instant connection with this particular group of musicians. “Music is such a language. It’s such an exchange of energy between the conductor and the orchestra. When you come for the first time as a guest conductor like I came here in Atlanta… you have one hundred people in front of you that you never met,” said Stutzmann. “I felt immediately that the kind of work I love to do, which is very intense, very demanding, but totally devoted to music, was actually what they were looking for, and that’s what I love with them.”

The orchestra will benefit from Stutzmann’s virtuosity in several areas of music, rare among conductors; she’s an accomplished singer, as well as a pianist, violinist, cellist, and bassoon player. In particular, Stutzmann feels that singing serves as an excellent tool in her conducting work. “I think it’s one of the greatest helps I have, is my voice,” she said. “I can share what I learned all my life, how to shape my instrument to the musicians, so I can easily, instead of describing things with words, just sing a phrase with the emotions, the colors I’m looking for, and they immediately understand.”