The Baltimore Symphony made history in 2007 by appointing the first woman as music director of a major American orchestra — Marin Alsop, whose current posts include chief conductor of the Ravinia Festival.
The orchestra marked another milestone in July 2022, when it named then-29-year-old Jonathon Heyward her successor. He was set to become the first person of color to lead the then-106-year-old ensemble and the youngest music director of a major American orchestra.
Heyward said the classical music world is making progress in achieving equity and diversity, especially in programming.
“That is very inspiring because the art form is incredible,” he said from his home in the English coastal town of Folkestone. “I truly think it is an art form for everyone. So to see the amount of inclusion that has happened so far is great. But, as with any sort of change, there is always work to be done.”
Heyward will make his Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts Wednesday when he leads the ensemble as part of its annual summer residency at the venerable outdoor series in Highland Park.
“I’m, of course, so thrilled and really excited to be able to work with the fantastic musicians of the Chicago Symphony,” he said. “It’s one of the orchestras I’ve always admired and loved.”
The conductor will lead what he called a fun, dance-suffused program including Tania León’s “Pasajes” (2022), with its Cuban dance rhythms, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances.” Also featured will be Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with Benjamin Beilman as soloist.
The Baltimore Symphony named Heyward its new music director just months after he made his debut with the ensemble in March 2022 with concerts that included its first performances of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15.
“It was all a bit of a whirlwind,” he said. “It happened very, very quickly. But I’ll never forget the first rehearsal that we had together. I felt instantly that there was an amazing sense of chemistry of musicmaking. I certainly felt that this is an ensemble that I would love to always work with.”
He was music director designate in 2022-23, an interim position that allowed him to put his artistic imprint on much of the coming season, when he will take over the position of music director.
Next summer, Heyward is also set to become music director of Lincoln Center’s Summer Orchestra, the successor to the well-known Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, which dates to 1966. The new permutation of the orchestra will put a greater emphasis on musician diversity and community engagement, according to Heyward.
A Charleston, S.C., native, Heyward began playing cello at 10 as part of a free public school strings program. A few months later, he auditioned for the Charleston County School of the Arts and was accepted after first being wait-listed. He attended that school from sixth grade through 12th grade.
“I loved sports, but I wasn’t any good at them,” he said. “So, for me as a kid, having an outlet was really important and crucial. Music and the cello certainly became my outlet.”
In eighth grade, his music teacher was ill, so a substitute had students lead the orchestra. Heyward was one of the first chosen.
“What amazed me at the moment — I still remember it so vividly — was seeing the score, all these parts coming together to make one sound,” he said. “And it’s still what makes the symphonic tradition so beautiful and inspiring.”
He went on to conduct in high school and was smitten. He continued his cello studies at the Boston Conservatory before getting a master’s degree in conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
While still in school, he won the 2015 International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors in France. A year later, he became assistant conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England. He has lived in that country since then, even gaining a slight British accent.
“I really started my whole career here, and it felt really natural to stay,” Heyward said. “And, of course, I had a very serious girlfriend” — now his wife — “who happened to be English. It was an amazing learning experience and still is to be on this side of the pond.”
