MEET THE MUSIC DIRECTOR: Ruth Reinhardt

RI Phil Music Director Ruth Reinhardt conducts Brahms & Beethoven

October 16 at 6:30pm & October 17 at 7:30pm

Background:  German conductor Ruth Reinhardt is building a reputation for her keen musical intelligence, programmatic imagination, and elegant performances. The 2026/27 season will be her second as Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic where she will lead seven programs culminating in a performance of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis.  

Reinhardt maintains a distinguished international career and has established relationships with many of world’s leading orchestras and foremost soloists. In North America, she has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra on four occasions, as well as the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, and the orchestras of San Francisco, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Charlotte. In Europe, she’s lead the Hague Residentie Orkestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in Amsterdam, Orchestre National de France, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, RSO Berlin, Stockholm Philharmonic, and Tonkünstler Orchestra Wien, among many others.

North American engagements in the 2026/27 season include debuts with the Pacific Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic. In Europe, Reinhardt tours with the Stuttgart Philharmonic to Ulm and Paris, and make appearances with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, National Radio Orchestra of Romania, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Västerås Sinfonietta, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Dalasinfoniettan, and Uppsala Chamber Orchestra.

Programmatically, Reinhardt’s interests have led her toward contemporary repertoire, with significant emphasis on women composers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Her programs often introduce new names and fresh faces to many orchestras, including Grażyna Bacewicz, Kaija Saariaho, and Lotta Wennäkoski, and pairs them with stylistically contrasting or complementary pieces, whether core masterworks by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, or Dvorak, or with “classic moderns” such as works by Bartók, Stravinsky, Lutosławski, Martinů, and Hindemith. Ruth is a frequent collaborator of many of today’s foremost instrumentalists spanning several generations. Among them are pianists Emanuel Ax, Daniil Trifonov, and Eva Gevorgyan; violinists Augustin Hadelich and Vadim Gluzman; cellists Andrei Ioniță and Jean-Guihen Queyras; horn player Stefan Dohr; and saxophonist Steven Banks.

Ruth Reinhardt served as Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony for the final two seasons of Jaap van Zweden’s tenure as Music Director (2018-2020). She received her master’s degree in Conducting from the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 2017. She was a Dudamel Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2017-2018), conducting fellow at both the Seattle Symphony (2015-2016) and Tanglewood Music Center (2015), and Taki Concordia associate conducting fellow (2015-2017). She currently makes her home in Switzerland with her husband and newborn daughter. 

Tickets start at $25! Click HERE or call 401-248-7000 to purchase today!