The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France has appointed Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla as its Principal Guest Conductor for three seasons starting September 2026. Her tenure will coincide with Jaap van Zweden’s arrival as Music Director, and with Myung-Whun Chung, who continues as Honorary Music Director.
Gražinytė-Tyla made her debut with the orchestra in April 2021, conducting Weinberg’s Symphony No. 3, a composer whose music has become a constant thread in her career — on stage, in opera, and on record. She returns to the Auditorium de Radio France this month for three concerts devoted to Shostakovich and Weinberg (14–21 November), before leading Britten’s War Requiem at the Philharmonie de Paris on 12 June 2026.
Born in Vilnius in 1986, Gražinytė-Tyla studied conducting in Graz, Leipzig, and Zurich. After early posts in Heidelberg and Bern, she rose to international attention in 2012 by winning the Nestlé and Salzburg Young Conductors Award. She later served as a Dudamel Fellow and Associate Conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, before being appointed Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) in 2016 — the first woman to hold that position. Since concluding her tenure in 2022, she has remained Principal Guest Conductor of the CBSO and continues to appear with leading orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Munich Philharmonic.
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