A venerated Detroit institution is handing its musical reins to a rising star.

In a bold, forward-looking move, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has hired charismatic young Italian conductor Jader Bignamini as its music director — the 43-year-old's first time in that role anywhere. Bignamini’s six-year contract will begin with the 2020-2021 DSO season that commences later this year.

As maestro, artistic programmer and public ambassador, Bignamini will lead the evolving DSO into the 2020s, shaping the musical identity and spirit of an organization that bills itself as “the most accessible orchestra on the planet.”

Speaking with the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday, the upbeat conductor promised "an incredible experience."

“In this orchestra there are incredible musicians with humility, who are so proud to be part of (the DSO),” he said. “They love the challenge. With this positive energy, we can do anything.”

Bignamini’s appointment comes more than four years after the announced departure of Leonard Slatkin, whose tenure ran from 2008 to 2018 before he assumed the title of director laureate.

It’s also the culmination of a serendipitous odyssey that began in June 2018, when Bignamini stepped in as a last-minute sub for the ailing Slatkin, wowing DSO musicians and audiences as he conducted performances of Puccini’s “Turandot.”

“It was not an easy situation to stand in for a big maestro. It was a big responsibility,” Bignamini said. “But from the first second, I was immediately (connected) with them and they were immediately with me.”

At 43, he is the youngest DSO music director in nearly five decades, and he’s the third Italian in the job, following Franco Ghione in the late 1930s and Aldo Ceccato in the mid-‘70s.

He will oversee an orchestra that itself has become younger in recent years. The arrival of Bignamini corresponds to a generational shift underway in the DSO’s musician ranks. Amid retirement turnover and departures tied to the musicians’ strike of 2010-11, Slatkin’s hires transformed the ensemble into one much younger than when he’d arrived.

In other words, Bignamini and the DSO have the chance to grow together.

“We’ve all talked about how ready we are to work with somebody who’s beginning a journey, because we’re on a journey too,” said DSO president and CEO Anne Parsons.

Aside from the six-year length of the contract, terms of Bignamini’s deal were not disclosed.

In Bignamini, the DSO has landed a leader who had just begun making a name in America — and a conductor who quickly won the hearts of musicians during a pair of Orchestra Hall guest stints.

Once he was on their radar amid the quiet search to replace Slatkin, DSO officials traveled to New Mexico and Europe to further watch Bignamini in action.

The hiring, said DSO board chairman Mark Davidoff, was all about “the right time, right place, right chemistry.”

“But it’s also looking at the chance to be entrepreneurial and nimble and bold,” he said of the selection process. “This opportunity comes along only once a decade or so. Being passionate, patient and thoughtful were watchwords for the board.”

Orchestra officials said they are confident — indeed, feel lucky — that they’ve snagged a blossoming talent who’s set to emerge as “a world-class leader,” as Davidoff described him.

“When somebody who could have gone anywhere chooses Detroit, it’s a great statement for the city,” said Davidoff.

DSO officials point to Bignamini’s musical knowledge, collaborative flair and dexterous leadership as traits that won them over. Most important, said Parsons, he has “the full support of our musicians,” four of whom sat on the search committee that ultimately zeroed in on the Italian.

The search, spearheaded by vice president and general manager Erik Rönmark, also pinpointed Bignamini for his bright, gregarious demeanor. He becomes the public face of the DSO at a time when community outreach is an ever-growing priority beyond the walls of Orchestra Hall.

“The fact that he’s curious and personable and energetic bodes very well for his offstage work,” said Parsons, who added with a laugh: “The only thing we’ll have to be careful about is not wearing him out early on.”

Fresh starts and quick bonds

In a sense, the DSO’s embrace of Bignamini embodies a certain conception of Detroit circa 2020: a city imbued with hard-won, deeply chiseled authenticity, now pushing forward with youthful creative energy.

Bignamini will be formally introduced as the DSO’s new maestro at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Beacon Park, where he’ll conduct the orchestra in Gioachino Rossini's “La Scala di Seta Overture.”

He will then conduct three weeks of the 20-week classical series during the upcoming season — which was announced Wednesday — and for 12 weeks in 2021-22.

Detroiters can see him at the podium this weekend in a previously announced conducting appearance, as he leads the DSO in Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with soloist Augustin Hadelich and Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique.” Performances are at 10:45 a.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

The last of those will be live-streamed as part of the DSO’s “Live from Orchestra Hall” webcast program. Initially scheduled for streaming Saturday evening, the webcast was moved to Sunday afternoon for the sake of Bignamini's family and friends six hours ahead in Italy.

From their earliest rehearsals with Bignamini during his 2018 fill-in appearance, DSO musicians sensed an instinctive connection: “There was buzz in the air,” said Stephen Molina, the DSO’s assistant principal bassist. “There was electricity.”

The feeling was reciprocal.

“I felt this immediate chemistry,” Bignamini said. “It was like amore a prima vista — love at first sight.”

Throughout that week — and during a subsequent guest visit last October to lead a demanding Mahler program — the conductor’s expressive hands stood out, Molina said. And his rapport with DSO musicians was welcomed: coaxing the best out of the players while offering critical but constructive feedback.

Molina, a member of the search committee, said he hopes Bignamini will “bring the ensemble into a greater focus, to allow each of us to give our best toward a common goal.” The bassist spoke excitedly about the prospect of growing together, as DSO players absorb the nuances of the conductor’s musical technique, from dynamics to phrasing.

“He expresses himself well. He has a charisma about him that’s wonderful. And he’s very gracious, both onstage and off,” said Molina. “He can be very pointed in what he wants from the podium, but you can feel the respect he’s giving when he asks that of you — which is not real easy to produce.”

Bignamini is by no means untested: A lifelong clarinetist trained in Milan, he has guest-conducted a host of orchestras in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

He is, however, a relative unknown, especially in the context of the past 30 years, when the DSO was helmed by a pair of proven, veteran entities in music directors Neeme Jarvi and Slatkin. Bignamini is a figure who — at least as of this writing — doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.

“I love this orchestra and institution because we’re continually able to attract the best in the business,” said DSO president and CEO Anne Parsons. “And we have a voracious appetite for discovering new talent.”

Magnetic personality

In person, Bignamini radiates a big, buoyant energy — an infectious presence who has made words like “charm” and “spark” a go-to shorthand lately among DSO executives. Sitting Tuesday for a Free Press interview, the young conductor offered a wide, inviting grin while sporting a sharp blue European suit and high-end Spanish sneakers.

He acknowledged his English skills aren’t perfect, and occasionally relied on his Italian-speaking manager to help translate discussion. When a video camera was at last turned off during the conversation, he dramatically flopped across his chair in an exaggerated show of relief.

During a photo shoot later Tuesday on the Orchestra Hall stage, he goofed around for a small crowd by attempting to balance a conductor’s baton on his nose.

But there’s a sense of serious artistic commitment to go with the lighthearted persona. Hailing from an opera background, Bignamini seems drawn to musical grandeur. In the upcoming DSO season, for instance, he’s especially excited about a performance of Beethoven’s 9th (Dec. 10-13), a touchstone work that will fill Orchestra Hall with a chorus of singers.

“I’m comfortable when I have a lot of people onstage,” he said. “I’m so happy when I get to conduct pieces like Strauss, Mahler and also Russian music — Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff.”

He said he’s relishing a May 2021 DSO program highlighted by Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto (“maybe my favorite concerto”), featuring violinist Midori.

Still, Bignamini emphasized that his musical horizons are broad. While he declined Tuesday to drill into the particulars of his planned repertoire approach, he indicated he’s a lover of classical, contemporary and pop music — and he’s a jazz enthusiast very much aware of Detroit’s rich history in that realm.

“We have to bring culture,” he said. “I think the orchestra has to do all the music, with the right energy and the right direction.”

The married father of two teens wouldn’t say whether he will permanently settle in Detroit at some point. For now, he’ll be here for five weeks in 2020-21, and 15 weeks the following season.

The new conductor will have a hand in the DSO's assorted community and educational initiatives, including its program of neighborhood performances. It's a topic close to home, says Bignamini, who grew up attending community concerts and founded a youth wind ensemble in Italy with his wife, Lidia.

Though he wouldn't elaborate on plans for touring and recording, Bignamini said he's a fan of the "Live from Orchestra Hall" streams, which beam DSO concerts to viewers globally.

“It’s like a world tour for each concert,” he said. “It’s important for the concentration of the musicians.”

A native of Crema in northern Italy, Bignamini studied at the Piacenza Music Conservatory and began his professional career as a clarinetist with the Orchestra Sinfonica la Verdi in Milan. He was named that organization's assistant conductor in 2010 and eventually became resident conductor.

As for that Italian name: Jader Bignamini is pronounced YAH-durr BIG-nuh-mee-nee.

Recent and scheduled guest-conducting gigs include work with orchestras in Toronto, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis and Toronto, and Bignamini made his debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 2017.

His own origins as a working clarinetist, Bignamini said, give him unique insight into the human interplay of an ensemble at work.

“I have the temperature of the orchestra,” he said. “I can understand who is a leader and who’s not. I can explain things in different ways from person to person.”

As music director, Bignamini will have much free reign — overseeing auditions, crafting programming and shaping a big-picture vision. And the Detroit job, he said, came with another key allure: Orchestra Hall itself. Bignamini is landing here amid the DSO’s ongoing centennial celebration of the theater, which he called “one of the best in the world.”

“This orchestra is incredibly good but incredibly lucky — because they play in this kind of concert hall with these acoustics,” he said. “I tasted it immediately while conducting ‘Turandot.’ I could hear very clearly all the instruments, all the voices.”

All told, the dawn of the Bignamini era at the DSO is generating optimism on all sides.

“I think we’re about to enter a very inspiring time,” said Davidoff. “So I would say: Get ready to be inspired.”

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.