(Credit: © Admill Kuyler)

Nicholas Carter has been appointed Chief Guest Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

His three-year term is set to commence in January 2027.

Carter’s first encounter with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra came nearly three decades ago when he was a 12 year-old and stood onstage as a member of the National Boys Choir in performances of Mahler’s Symphony No.3 and “Carmina Burana.” He later returned regularly as a guest conductor.

In a statement Carter said “I’m thrilled to be joining the distinguished artistic family of the Melbourne Symphony, which I firmly believe is one of the world’s great orchestras. The MSO gave me my first experience of orchestral music and first inspired me to become a conductor, so to return as Chief Guest Conductor is an enormous privilege.”

Carter’s first subscription concert as Chief Guest Conductor will see him lead the orchestra in Bruckner’s Symphony No.8.

Carter recently became General Music Director of the Staatsoper and Staatsorchester Stuttgart from the 2026-27 season and becomes the first Australian to hold the position at an opera house with a history spanning more than 400 years. He regularly conducts at the The Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, Oper Zürich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Oper Köln, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Santa Fe Opera.