The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association has announced that Robert Kahn will serve as assistant conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) for the 2026–27 season, in a position created in collaboration with the Solti Foundation U.S. to support emerging American conductors.
In this role, Kahn will work with the orchestra as a cover conductor during selected subscription weeks. He will also lead youth concerts in March 2027 and conduct the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as well as the final round of the Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition in January 2027.
Kahn was one of three candidates selected by the Solti Foundation U.S. to audition with the orchestra and was ultimately chosen for the position by a majority vote of CSO musicians.
A Dutch-American conductor, Kahn trained at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he completed the conducting fellowship in 2022 under the guidance of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Since then he has worked as a cover conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, and assisted Jaap van Zweden and the CSO during the orchestra’s 2025 European tour.
Kahn has also collaborated with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra as assistant to Nézet-Séguin in performances of Wagner’s Die Walküre. His recent engagements include a conducting debut with the Marin Symphony in California in 2024 and work with the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he led Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
Later this month he is scheduled to make his debut with Dutch National Opera, conducting Hannah Kendall’s The Knife of Dawn in Amsterdam.
The assistant conductor position is intended to provide early-career conductors with professional experience working alongside one of the world’s leading orchestras, continuing a tradition of training roles that has existed at the CSO for much of its history.
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