Grammy Award winning conductor Cristian Măcelaru is artistic director of the Enescu Festival and Competition, music director of the Orchestre National de France, chief conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester, artistic director and principal conductor of the Interlochen Center for the Arts’ World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and music director and conductor of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
At the 2023 George Enescu Festival, his inaugural season as artistic director, Cristian Măcelaru leads the George Enescu Philharmonic, WDR Sinfonieorchester and Orchestre National de France alongside the Romanian Youth Orchestra. Additional 2023/24 season highlights include his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra and return engagements with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
During the 2023/24 season, Cristian Măcelaru and Orchestre National de France will tour major cities in Austria and Spain, including Vienna, Madrid and Barcelona. This season, he will also tour in China and South Korea with WDR Sinfonieorchester. His previous seasons include European engagements with the Concertgebouworkest, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Staatskapelle Berlin and Budapest Festival Orchestra. In North America, he has led the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra, where he was conductor-in-residence for three seasons.
Cristian Măcelaru is featured on albums including the complete symphonies of Saint-Saëns on Warner Classics with the Orchestre National de France and selections by Bartók and Dvořák on Linn Records with the WDR Sinfonieorchester. In 2020, he received a Grammy Award for conducting the Decca Classics recording of Wynton Marsalis’ Violin Concerto with Nicola Benedetti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His highly-anticipated recording of Enescu’s Symphonies Nos. 1-3 and the composer’s two Romanian Rhapsodies was released in April 2024 on Deutsche Grammophon.
Cristian Măcelaru attracted international attention for the first time in 2012, stepping in with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and receiving the Solti Emerging Conductor Award for young conductors, followed in 2014 by the Solti Conducting Award. He studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy, University of Miami and Rice University with Larry Rachleff, as well as Tanglewood Music Center and Aspen Music Festival in masterclasses with David Zinman, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Oliver Knussen and Stefan Asbury.