Brazilian-born Marcelo Lehninger has been Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony since 2016 and was recently appointed Artistic Director of the Bellingham Festival of Music in Washington. Previously, he served as Music Director of the New West Symphony in Los Angeles, for which the League of American Orchestras awarded him the Helen H. Thompson Award for Emerging Music Directors. For five years, Lehninger was Assistant and then Associate Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a tenure that included many concerts in Boston, Tanglewood and a highly praised debut at Carnegie Hall in 2011.

Lehninger brought the Grand Rapids Symphony to Carnegie Hall in 2018 for its first performance at the famed venue in thirteen years and released the album “Strauss & Villa-Lobos,” which has been internationally acclaimed. Following his commitment to education, he continues his annual Conducting Institute, which offers a one-month residency to promising young conductors as part of the Bellingham Festival of Music.

During the 2025-2026 season, Lehninger returns to the Rochester Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, and makes his debut with the Rhode Island Philharmonic. In addition, he maintains his close association with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, leading multiple engagements in Rio de Janeiro. Last year, he visited South Africa for the first time, conducting concerts with the Johannesburg and KwaZulu Natal Philharmonics.

Lehninger has led some of the world’s top orchestras, including the Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, National, and Houston Symphonies, among many others. European highlights include engagements with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, regular visits to the Slovenian Philharmonic, including on tour to Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and a tour with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra assisting Mariss Jansons. He was Maestro Masur’s assistant with the Orchestre National de France (during their residency at the Musikverein in Vienna), Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, and the New York Philharmonic.

Before dedicating his career to conducting, Lehninger studied violin and piano. He holds a master’s degree from the Conductors Institute at Bard College. A dual citizen of Brazil and Germany, Marcelo Lehninger is the son of Brazilian pianist Sônia Goulart and German violinist Erich Lehninger.