KANSAS CITY, Mo. (June 23, 2026) — The Kansas City Symphony (KCS) today announced a five-year contract renewal for Music Director Matthias Pintscher, extending his artistic leadership through the 2033/34 season. The renewal affirms the Symphony’s confidence in Pintscher’s vision and builds on the momentum of his tenure, which began with the 2024/25 season and has elevated the orchestra’s profile locally, nationally and internationally.
Since taking the podium as the Kansas City Symphony’s fifth music director, Pintscher has helped shape a bold artistic direction for the organization, including a continued commitment to artistic excellence and community connection, compelling programming that balances masterworks with contemporary voices, and two European tours (one inaugural in 2024, and another forthcoming in August 2026). His continued leadership will deepen the Symphony’s impact in Kansas City while further strengthening its reputation on the world stage.
“The Kansas City Symphony is truly a special and remarkable orchestra with a wide-open mindset, and I feel honored to share a chosen family with them,” Pintscher said. “I am immensely proud of the work that we’ve done together, and I am grateful for the trust of the musicians, board, staff and community. I look forward to continuing our work together with curiosity, energy, and a shared sense of purpose and belonging for our inspiring community.”
An internationally acclaimed conductor and composer, Pintscher has brought a distinct voice to the Kansas City Symphony. As music director, he is responsible for ensuring the artistic advancement of the orchestra, conducting the Symphony’s classical concerts, preparing the orchestra for performances and collaborating closely with guest conductors and soloists. Pintscher also regularly composes, curates and commissions innovative compositions and series, including the forthcoming “Prometheus” concert in the 2026/27 season.
Pintscher has struck an intrepid tone in his first two seasons with the orchestra, which includes 80 full-time musicians from across the world. He has appointed 10 new musicians since his introduction in the 2024/25 season, including three principals, and has granted tenure to five KCS musicians hired prior to his appointment. Notable guest artist appearances have included Gil Shaham (violin), Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Michelle Cann (piano), Tamara Stefanovich (piano), Conrad Tao (piano), Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano), George Li (piano), Leila Josefowicz (violin) and Yefim Bronfman (piano), along with featuring multiple KCS musicians as soloists. Each season has included one of Beethoven’s five piano concertos paired with a new commission for piano and orchestra, first from Conrad Tao, then from Lisa Streich and continuing in 2026/27 with Chris Rogerson. May 2026 saw the world premiere of Pintscher’s most ambitious project yet: a 60-minute work inspired by the seven days of divine creation in the book of Genesis, composed by seven different composers — one for each day.
The Kansas City Symphony has achieved an impressive growth trajectory in recent years, in large part due to Pintscher’s leadership. In its 44th season, KCS has ascended to a position as a top-20 orchestra in the U.S. Last season, KCS gave more than 340 performances, the most of any American orchestra. The Symphony will travel overseas again for its second European tour this fall, which includes stops in the Netherlands and Pintscher’s home nation of Germany.
“In three years of working closely alongside Matthias (one in planning and two seasons as Music Director), I can tell you that he embodies love. He loves our musicians, he loves our audiences, he loves our city, and we love him back. But it’s more than this — love shapes his core expression of art, that love for one another can be brought out through music and sound that speaks to our humanity,” said Kansas City Symphony President and CEO Danny Beckley. “Matthias is a very special musician, but more than this, he is a very special man. That we have attracted him to Kansas City is a testament to the people who live here, to our city’s warm, personal culture, and to the incredible ways that this community invests in music. We couldn’t be more thrilled to continue working with him as the Kansas City Symphony continues its incredible growth.”
As the Symphony looks to the future, Pintscher’s continued leadership will help advance the orchestra’s artistic aspirations, foster innovation and broaden its reach across the region and beyond.
About Matthias Pintscher
Matthias Pintscher is the music director of the Kansas City Symphony. He launched his tenure with a highly successful tour with the orchestra to Europe just before opening the 2024/25 season in Kansas City, with concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonie and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.
Pintscher was formerly the music director of Ensemble Intercontemporain for a decade. He is currently in his seventh season as artistic partner of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has held several titled positions, including nine seasons as BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s artist-in-association, principal conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, music director for the 2020 Ojai Festival and season creative chair with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
Pintscher’s compositions are championed by some of today’s finest performing artists, orchestras and conductors, and has been performed by the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris, among many others.
Pintscher is published by Boosey and Hawkes and Bärenreiter. Recordings of his works can be found on Kairos, EMI, Teldec, Wergo, Winter & Winter and Alpha Classics.
About The Kansas City Symphony
In only its 44th season, the Kansas City Symphony has become one of America’s most vibrant major orchestras and has gained national and international recognition. At its orchestral home of Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Symphony serves the Kansas City metropolitan region of more than 2.2 million people.
The Symphony’s 80 full-time musicians present a diverse and dynamic range of orchestral and chamber music performances each season under the artistic leadership of music director Matthias Pintscher, an internationally acclaimed conductor and composer who regularly conducts the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies.
In addition to concerts in Helzberg Hall, Symphony musicians perform throughout the region on an innovative portable stage, the Mobile Music Box. The Symphony also serves as the orchestra for the Kansas City Ballet and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, adding to the rich cultural experiences that these organizations offer to the community.
For more information, visit www.kcsymphony.org.