Samy Rachid

The young French conductor Samy Rachid was named as an assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra by Music Director Andris Nelsons for the start of the 2023-2024 season. Formerly the cellist of the Arod Quartet, he left that ensemble in 2021 focus on conducting, winning 2nd Prize of the Tokyo International Music Competition for Conducting. The same year he worked with France’s Orchestre Elektra and was subsequently asked by the ensemble to become their music director for the 2022-23 season. He was a Conducting Fellow of the prestigious Verbier Festival 2022, where he worked with such renowned conductors as Gianandrea Noseda and Klaus Mäkelä, and took part of the Gstaad Conducting Academy, where he worked closely with Jaap von Zweden and became the first French conductor to be awarded the Academy’s Neeme Järvi Prize. He is currently assistant conductor of the Opéra National du Rhin. As assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he will make his debut with the orchestra during the 2024 Tanglewood season, followed by subscription concerts at Symphony Hall during the 2024-2025 season.

Samy Rachid studies and works closely with Mathieu Herzog, assisting him with the Orchestre Appassionato on several projects and singers including Roberto Alagna, Ludovic Tezier, and Nadine Sierra. As cellist of the Arod Quartet, he worked with Quatuor Ébène and the Artemis Quartet. With the Arod Quartet, he won the First Prize and two special prizes at the Carl Nielsen String Quartet Competition in 2015, and the following year was awarded First Prize and two special prizes at the ARD Competition in Munich. He also recorded several albums for Warner Classics.

Since 2021, Samy Rachid has conducted the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Verbier Festival Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, PKF Prague Philharmonia, Tokyo Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse, and Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Szeged.