NY Philharmonic gets $40 million gift that endows Gustavo Dudamel’s job as music director

NEW YORK (AP) — Incoming music director Gustavo Dudamel will conduct the New York Philharmonic at its spring gala on April 24, the orchestra said Tuesday as it announced a $40 million gift from co-chairman Oscar L. Tang and wife Agnes Hsu-Tang that will endow his position.

Dudamel was hired in February to become the Philharmonic’s music director for the 2026-27 season. He conducted the orchestra last May in three performances of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony but was not scheduled to lead it in the 2023-24 season, which opens Sept. 27. The program of Dudamel’s concert was not announced.

As part of the gift, the music director will become The Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Music and Artistic Director Chair starting with the 2025-26 season, when Dudamel becomes music director designate.

The 42-year-old Dudamel has been music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2009, a tenure that will end after 17 seasons when he starts in New York. He quit as music director of the Paris Opéra in May, two seasons into a six-year contract scheduled to run through the 2026-27 season.

Oscar Tang, 85, has been part of the philharmonic board since 2013 and has been co-chairman with Peter W. May, since 2019. Tang was CEO of the asset management company Reich & Tang for 20 years before retiring in 1993.