Washington National Opera Hires Robert Spano as New Music Director 

The GRAMMY Award-winning conductor will assume the role as of September 2025

Robert Spano currently serves as Music Director Designate of the Washington National Opera (WNO). His three-year term as Music Director begins in the 2025/26 concert season.

In his new role, Spano will oversee the WNO Orchestra, Chorus, and music staff, plus work alongside the WNO’s current principal conductor Evan Rogister and artistic director Francesca Zambello. Rogister, who was appointed principal conductor in 2018, will continue this role until the end of the 2024/25 season. 

He will also be involved in mentoring emerging conductors through WNO’s partnership with the Solti Foundation, and coaching students of the WNO Cafritz Young Artist Program.

Spano made his WNO debut in 2021 with the world premiere of Written in Stone — WNO’s commission honoring the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary. 

He joins former WNO music directors including Heinz Fricke, Paul Callaway, John Mauceri, and Philippe Auguin. 

Currently the music director of the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Spano was also recently named Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra’s principal conductor.

Additionally, he is music director laureate of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, where he was music director for 20 years, garnering eight GRAMMY nominations and winning four GRAMMY Awards. 

His conducting engagements have included the Metropolitan Opera; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; BBC Symphony; Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala; Sydney Symphony Orchestra; the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics; plus the San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and New World Symphonies, among others. 

Also a composer, he premiered his 2016 Sonata: Four Elements for piano at the Aspen Music Festival, and a song cycle, Hölderlin-Lieder, for soprano Jessica Rivera.  

“Robert Spano is one of the world’s most respected and beloved conductors, and he has a particular talent for leadership as a music director, a position he has held to acclaim several times in the symphony world, but not yet in the opera world,” said WNO’s general director Timothy O’Leary in the press release. “When our WNO Orchestra musicians worked with him on Written in Stone … there was an instant rapport and musical bond. We are thrilled to welcome him to the WNO family.” 

“At Aspen, I have seen Robert’s fierce commitment to mentoring the next generation of singers and conductors — this same commitment is embedded in WNO’s DNA and is an important aspect of our mission,” Zambello added. “He has also spent his career building and developing orchestras and I know he will continue that tradition here. I look forward to an artistic partnership that not only nurtures the artists within the company but develops deeper connections to our audiences and community.” 

“I am thrilled to be joining the Washington National Opera as its next music director,” Spano said. “This company is well known for its vision, and I am tremendously excited to collaborate with both Timothy O'Leary and Francesca Zambello in what I know will be an exciting future.”