DSO Music Director Jader Bignamini conducts Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony and music by Prokofiev, May 8–10 in Orchestra Hall

About Jader Bignamini

Jader Bignamini was introduced as the 18th music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in January 2020, commencing with the 2020–21 season. His infectious passion and artistic excellence set the tone for the seasons ahead, creating extraordinary music and establishing a close relationship with the orchestra. During his tenure in Detroit, Bignamini has collaborated with such artists as Branford Marsalis, Daniil Trifonov, Yo-Yo Ma, Hilary Hahn, Alisa Weilerstein, and Yuja Wang, as well as composers Michael Abels and Carlos Simon, and conducted major symphonic works by Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler, and also Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Florence Price, and Margaret Bonds. A jazz aficionado, he has immersed himself in Detroit’s rich jazz culture and the influences of American music. In 2023, the DSO extended Bignamini’s contract for a second five-year term, through 2031.

A native of Crema, Italy, Bignamini studied at the Piacenza Music Conservatory and began his career as a musician (clarinet) with Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, later serving as the group’s resident conductor. Captivated by the works of legends like Mahler and Tchaikovsky, Bignamini explored their complexity and power, puzzling out the role that each instrument played in creating a larger-than-life sound.

In the years since, Bignamini has conducted some of the world’s most acclaimed orchestras and opera companies in venues across the globe including working with Riccardo Chailly on concerts of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in 2013 and his concert debut at La Scala in 2015 for the opening season of La Sinfonica di Milano. Recent highlights include debuts with Opera de Paris (La Forza del Destino and Adriana Lecouvreur) and Deutsche Opera Berlin (Simon Boccanegra); debuts with Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, the Washington National Symphony, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Minnesota symphonies; The Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival and the Grand Teton Festival; with the BBC Orchestra and London Philharmonic; with the Metropolitan Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Vienna State Opera, and Dutch National Opera (Madama Butterfly); Bayerische Staatsoper (La traviata);  in Montpellier for the Festival of Radio France; La traviata in Tokyo directed by Sofia Coppola; return engagements with Oper Frankfurt (La forza del destino, Trovatore, and Carmen) and Santa Fe Opera (Rigoletto and La bohème); La traviata, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot at Arena of Verona; Il Trovatore and Aida at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera; Madama Butterfly, I Puritani, Manon Lescaut, and Otello at Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Simon Boccanegra and La Forza del destino at the Verdi Festival in Parma; Ciro in Babilonia and Eduardo e Cristina at Rossini Opera Festival; and La bohème, Madama Butterfly, and Elisir d’amore at La Fenice in Venice.

Bignamini also has a great career in Asia, including Japan where he has conducted the Osaka Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and opera productions of Andrea Chenier at NHK and La Traviata by Sofia Coppola with costumes by Valentino in Tokyo and on tour with Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera that is available on Blu-ray.

Recent highlights include collaborations with artists such as Alexander Gavrylyuk, Sergei Babayan, Emanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Simon Trpčeski, Kian Soltani, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Ray Chen, Gil Shaham, James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, María Dueñas, Karen Gomyo, Nemanja Radulović, and Leonidas Kavakos.

One of Bignamini’s greatest passions is working with the next generation of musicians, and during the summer he is a regular guest of the Interlochen Center for the Arts with the DSO and of the Asian Youth Orchestra, leading tours featuring the most talented young musicians from Asia.

About Alina Ibragimova

Performing music from baroque to new commissions on both modern and period instruments, Alina Ibragimova is recognized for the "immediacy and honesty” (The Guardian) of her performances.

The 2024–25 season sees Ibragimova perform with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, City of Birmingham Symphony and Swedish Chamber Orchestra, working with Vladimir Jurowski, Hannu Lintu, Anja Bihlmaier, Michael Sanderling, Iván Fischer, and Krzysztof Urbański. She also continues her partnership with pianist Cédric Tiberghien for recital tours of the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan.

Over the last two seasons Ibragimova has performed concertos with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Helsinki Philharmonic, working with Robin Ticciati, Ryan Bancroft, Maxim Emelyanychev, and Daniel Harding. She was also artist-in-residence with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and toured Europe with the Scottish Chamber Orchester and Kammerorchester Basel.

In recital, Ibragimova regularly performs at London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and at the Royal Albert Hall where she performed Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin at part of the BBC Proms. Ibragimova is a founding member of the Chiaroscuro Quartet – one of the most sought-after period ensembles.

Ibragimova’s discography ranges from Bach Concertos with Arcangelo through to Prokofiev Sonatas with Steven Osborne. Her 2020 recording of Shostakovich’s Violin Concertos won a Gramophone Award, while her 2021 recording of Paganini’s 24 Caprices topped the classical album charts on its release. Her most recent recording is Telemann’s Fantasias for Solo Violin.

Born in Russia in 1985, Ibragimova attended the Moscow Gnesin School, The Yehudi Menuhin School, and Royal College of Music, studying with Natasha Boyarsky, Gordan Nikolitch, and Christian Tetzlaff. An alumnus of the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme, Ibragimova’s many accolades include two Royal Philharmonic Society awards and an MBE in the 2016 New Year Honours List.

Ibragimova performs on a c.1775 Anselmo Bellosio violin kindly provided by Georg von Opel.

About the DSO

The acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and a deep connection to its city. Led by Music Director Jader Bignamini since 2020, the DSO makes its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, offering a robust performance schedule that features classical, pops, jazz, and family concerts, plus community performances. Enrico Lopez-Yañez was named Principal Pops Conductor in 2023, trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard serves as the orchestra’s Fred A. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair, and Tabita Berglund began her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor in the 2024–25 season. A dedication to broadcast innovation and technology began in 1922, when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a live radio broadcast of a concert and continues today with the groundbreaking Live from Orchestra Hall series of free webcasts.

The DSO’s distinguished history of recordings—many led by its renowned music directors—spans nearly a century, beginning with the orchestra’s first 78 rpm singles with Ossip Gabrilowitsch released on the Victrola label in 1928. A steady recording output has continued since then, with highlights including more than 20 releases with Paul Paray for Mercury’s Living Presence series, and 27 under the baton of Neeme Järvi, mostly on the Chandos label. In the 1970s, the DSO took part in the historic Black Composers Series for Columbia Records led by its then-Associate Conductor Paul Freeman and later made several acclaimed recordings with Antal Doráti for the Decca label. More recently, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, the DSO recorded music by Rachmaninoff, Copland, and John Williams for the Naxos label, earning its first GRAMMY® nomination in 2017 for Copland’s Third Symphony / Three Latin American Sketches. The first recording with Jader Bignamini, of Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony, was released in March 2025 on the Pentatone label.

Since its first school concerts a century ago, and particularly since the founding of the Civic Youth Ensembles in 1970, the DSO has been a national leader in bringing the benefits of music education to students, teachers, and families in Detroit and surrounding communities. The DSO remains committed to expanding its participation in the growth and well-being of Detroit through programs like its Detroit Neighborhood Initiative—cultural events co-created with community partners and residents—and Detroit Harmony, a promise to provide an instrument and instruction to any student in the city who wants to learn. With unwavering support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact lives through the power of unforgettable musical experiences.