Music
Jader Bignamini
born 1976 · conductor, clarinetist
Italian conductor and former clarinetist who has been music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 2020, with a contract running to 2031.
- Born
Crema, Italy- Detroit years
- 2018, 2020–present
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Bignamini, who grew up in Crema in Lombardy and began as a clarinetist in Milan's Orchestra Sinfonica La Verdi, first stood in front of the Detroit Symphony in June 2018 as an emergency substitute for Leonard Slatkin. He came back as a guest in October 2019, and in January 2020 the orchestra named him its music director, starting with the 2020–2021 season. The DSO counts him as its eighteenth music director. He conducts symphonic works from memory, and his opera career has taken him to La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna State Opera. In Detroit he has led the orchestra in Orchestra Hall and in new recordings, including Wynton Marsalis's Blues Symphony, released in 2025. In December 2023 the orchestra extended his contract through the 2030–2031 season.
Highlights
- Music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 2020
- Debuted with the DSO in 2018 as an emergency substitute for Slatkin
- Contract extended through the 2030–2031 season
- Recorded Wynton Marsalis's Blues Symphony with the DSO (2025)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 2018, 2020–present
Detroit Symphony Orchestra — Orchestra Hall
The DSO's home, where Bignamini made his emergency debut and has led the orchestra's seasons since 2020.