Who Might Conduct the 2027 Vienna New Year's Concert?

An invitation to lead the famous Vienna New Year’s Concert is one of the greatest honors a conductor can receive. Each year, the Vienna Philharmonic elects a guest conductor from a small circle of musicians with whom it has cultivated a close, long-standing relationship, typically lasting over a decade. Since 1987, the orchestra has selected a different conductor every year, announcing the next guest immediately after the conclusion of the concert.

Some conductors with particularly deep ties to the Vienna Philharmonic include Zubin Mehta, Herbert Blomstedt, Daniel Barenboim, and Riccardo Muti. Recently, however, the orchestra has signaled a commitment to younger conductors, as shown by its selection of Yannick Nezet-Seguin for this year’s concert.

Given that the orchestra opted for a first-timer this year, I'm skeptical they’ll go in that direction again. That leaves, in my opinion, two favorites for 2027.

Andris Nelsons

Nelsons first conducted the New Year’s Concert in 2020 and has since led two editions of the Vienna Philharmonic’s Summer Night Concert at Schönbrunn Palace. In 2026, he is scheduled to lead the orchestra on tours of the United States and Europe. It’s about time that the orchestra invites him back to ring in the new year.

Gustavo Dudamel

2026 is a big year for the Venezuelan conductor, as he is slated to begin his tenure as music director of the prestigious New York Philharmonic. It also marks the ten-year anniversary of his New Year’s Concert debut. At only 44 years old, he offers the perfect blend of youth and experience.

Other possible returning conductors include Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst, though they have each led the concert rather recently.

Of course, if the orchestra does choose to go with a debutant, several additional possibilities emerge.

Daniel Harding

In 2021, Harding became the first British conductor to lead the Summer Night Concert. He is young, fresh, and energetic—in many ways, exactly what the Vienna Philharmonic is looking for.

Sir Simon Rattle

The former principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic—the highest post in classical music—has a well-established relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic. Now that he’s free from his New Year’s Eve Concert duties in Berlin, it’s possible that the Vienna Philharmonic invite him over.

Other names like Tugan Sokhiev and Philippe Jordan also come to mind.

One final note: in recent years, many classical music fans have been wondering if and when the Vienna Philharmonic will select a female conductor to lead this concert. I remind these fans that the invitation is reserved for conductors with a particularly deep relationship with the orchestra, and that extending it prematurely for symbolic reasons would risk undermining the tradition—not to mention unfairly suggesting that women conductors are incapable of developing such a relationship on their own merits. That moment when a woman is invited to lead the New Year's Concert must and will come naturally, after she has developed the necessary closeness with the Vienna Philharmonic. And when it does, it will need no justification.

Who would you like to see at the podium in 2027?

• Andris Nelsons
• Gustavo Dudamel
• Daniel Harding
• Other