Matthias Pintscher directing the Kansas City Symphony (Kansas City Symphony)
Wrapping up his second season, the Kansas City Symphony music director earns high marks all around
When the Kansas City Symphony announced the appointment of Matthias Pintscher as incoming music director in May 2023, after a seemingly kismet guest conductor appearance that quickly evolved into a five-year contract, the news was met with overarching excitement in the performing arts community.
Watching him conduct the orchestra as music director-elect in March 2024 amid a buzzing, enthusiastic audience, I predicted that his appointment was a “strength to strength opportunity.”
He’s now completed his first two seasons of that five year commitment, brought in new ideas, welcomed artists new and familiar, taken the Symphony on its first European tour, and had a solid chance to start molding this orchestra into its next iteration with his artistic vision.
What was anticipated has held true.
Praised for his “keen musical intelligence, palpable verve and energy” (Bachtrack, May 2023), Pintscher’s initial charisma and confidence continues with elegance and conviction. The orchestra sounds more cohesive and dynamic than ever, even with a 12% change in the musician roster over the last two years.
Kansas City Symphony violinist Susan Goldenberg has seen the orchestra mature since its founding in 1982, performing with all five of the organization’s music directors. She was thrilled with Pintscher’s appointment and enthusiastic about his leadership.
“He creates a beautiful feeling in the orchestra of positive energy, mutual trust and respect,” she said. “I think his vision of Kansas City is with a lot of heart and integrity… He likes our city and he’s friendly with the orchestra.
“He’s efficient and focused, really focused. And he works tirelessly.”
KCS executive director Danny Beckley has worked closely with PIntscher for the last three years. “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, which is that love for one another can be brought out through music and sound that speaks to our humanity,” said Beckley.
His presence connects this orchestra at the center of the United States with international leaders of the art form, through guest conductor appearances in Los Angeles, Portland, Philadelphia, Hamburg, Paris and Berlin (where he conducted the premiere of his opera Das kalte Herz).
His conducting is active, engaged and elegant. While he doesn’t often talk directly to the audience during concerts, his non-verbal communication is effective, and when he does discuss music directly, it is with inviting sincerity.
Tim McDonald, professor of music at Rockhurst University, has observed the orchestra for decades and reviewed concerts for both The Kansas City Star and KC Studio magazine: “Matthias is an exciting conductor. He displays an excellent combination of sure technique and emotional delivery. His Mahler 7th Symphony (in November 2025) was thrilling. Mahler is not easy to conduct, with nearly constant mood and tempo changes, but Matthias was always in control.”
The orchestra has always performed a mix of canon and contemporary works, but for the first time in decades there is a composer as well as a conductor on the podium, which brings to mind the creator/interpreter leaders of previous generations, like Gustav Mahler, Pierre Boulez, Leonard Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas. This, along with a decade as music director of Paris-based Ensemble intercontemporain from 2013 to 2023, gives him access and appreciation for the current voices transforming contemporary classical music.
“His programming is excellent — a great combination of tried-and-true classics and lesser-known repertory,” McDonald said. “The focus on contemporary works, including some of his own, is marvelous. I especially enjoy the focus on women composers he brings to the orchestra.”
In May, Pintscher brought together seven composers to interpret the creation story with “Genesis,” (see more in KC Studio May/June 2026 issue), and in June, guest artist Yefim Bronfman premiered a piano prelude with the Kansas City Symphony,
co-written by Pintscher and Olga Neuwirth.
With his instigation and influence, the orchestra presented its first European tour in 2024 — making debuts in Hamburg, Berlin and Amsterdam — and generating transatlantic awareness and appreciation for what we already enjoy at home.
“Pintscher and his new orchestra were surprisingly already remarkably well coordinated,” wrote reviewer Michael Klier for Backtrack, describing the concert’s “Gänsehautmomente” (goosebump moments).
This August, The Kansas City Symphony is invited back to perform at the Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Berliner Philharmonie venues. Pintscher invited violinist Gil Shaham, a favorite with Kansas City Symphony audiences and audiences worldwide, to join them on tour.
In Hamburg, KCS — along with six other representative American orchestras — celebrates America’s 250th anniversary for German concertgoers. During the 2024 tour, they presented music by American composers. This time, the program includes Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3.
“Matthias’ leadership has been a massive draw for the Kansas City Symphony, both at home and abroad,” said Claire Martin, KCS’ manager of PR & Partnerships.
There have been other changes in the organization that coincided with Pintscher’s appointment.
Like previous music director Michael Stern, Pintscher only conducts a small overall percentage of the Symphony’s myriad events. But where there was previously one associate conductor, there are now two — Daniel Wiley and Luke Poeppel — who started the same season as Pintscher. They share conducting duties regarding the Symphony’s education, family and pops concerts.
Regarding the Symphony’s proposed new venue, Pintscher has been involved in discussions, but wasn’t the driving force behind the decision.
Unlike Stern, Pintscher doesn’t conduct the annual Memorial Day concert, Celebration at the Station, arguably the organization’s highest profile event, which attracts tens of thousands of people to the Union Station performance each year.
Pintscher, together with Beckley, had ambitious plans for his role here. While some came to fruition, like touring opportunities, world premieres from artists like Conrad Tao, Angel Lam and Errollyn Wallen, a puppet performance, and a two-part Rachmaninoff celebration, some concepts haven’t worked as planned. An experimental series, “Symphonic Piazza,” with a shorter, no-intermission program on Fridays, was quietly phased out, going back to a traditional format.
The expanded variety of programming (the orchestra also played a new concert of Taylor Swift arrangements this season) — together with this charismatic leading figure — generates interest in both the local community and wider performing arts landscape.
As a testament to his positive impact, in June the Kansas City Symphony announced that Pintscher’s contract was extended to 2034, which will include the organization’s 50th anniversary.
“He enlivens these spaces of great music to bring people together, onstage and offstage,” said Beckley. “He 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 the warm, individual, personal culture we have in this city, and to the incredible ways that this community invests in music.”
The Kansas City Symphony performs a preview performance of its European tour program, conducted by Matthias Pintscher, at 7 p.m. Aug. 21 in Helzberg Hall.
