James Conlon to retire as Los Angeles Opera music director after 2025-26 season, end 20-year tenure
James Conlon will retire as music director of the Los Angeles Opera at the end of the 2025-26 season, ending a 20-year run that will have spanned half the companyโs history.
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Rafael Payare to head Montreal Symphony starting in 2022-23
This March 10, 2020 photo shows Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare who has been hired as music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montral starting with the 2022-23 season. (Gerard Collett via AP)Conductor Rafael Payare was hired Thursday as music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montrรฉal starting with the 2022-23 season. A Venezuelan who turns 41 on Feb. 23, Payare follows the lengthy tenures of Montreal music directors Kent Nagano (2006-20) and Charles Dutoit (1977โ02). Payare has been music director of the San Diego Symphony since 2019-20 and has a contract there through 2025-26. Payare first conducted the Montreal orchestra in September 2018 in Schoenbergโs โVerklaerte Nacht,โ Mozartโs Violin Concerto No.