Robert Spano, music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 2021, will add the post of music director of Washington National Opera starting in September 2025. He’ll continue his summer activities as music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and he recently added an interim position as principal conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, while that orchestra searches for a permanent music director.
Spano’s Fort Worth contract runs through the 2027-2028 season. He came to the FWSO after 20 years as music director of the Atlanta Symphony, where he retains the title of music director laureate.
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Although better known as an orchestral conductor, Spano has considerable experience in opera. For Washington National Opera, a resident company at the Kennedy Center, he conducted the 2022 world premiere of Written in Stone, a collaboration among four composers. At the Metropolitan Opera he conducted the 2018 American premiere of Nico Muhly’s Marnie, and in 2005 and 2009 he led Wagner Ring Cycles with Seattle Opera. He has also conducted productions at Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Houston Grand Opera.
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Conductors these days commonly hold two and even three simultaneous appointments. Dallas Symphony music director Fabio Luisi is also principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Symphony in Japan.