Samy Rachid

Assistant Conductor: Boston Symphony Orchestra (from 2023/24)

For the 2025/26 season, French conductor Samy Rachid enters his third year as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Andris Nelsons. Following his acclaimed Tanglewood debut in 2025 with Midori, he has continued to collaborate extensively with the orchestra. Highlights include stepping in on short notice for Andris Nelsons with Renée Fleming as soloist at Symphony Hall, performing with Yo-Yo Ma at Tanglewood in 2026, and conducting further subscription concerts with Pablo Ferrandez at Symphony Hall in November 2025, underscoring his significant artistic presence alongside his role as Assistant Conductor.

The season also features several important debuts and returns. Rachid makes his first appearances as guest-conductor with orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, Hamburger Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Lille, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra with pianist Lise de la Salle as soloist, with whom he’ll be collaborating on a subsequent tour returning to Philharmonie Zuidnederland. He also returns to Auckland Philharmonia and to the Opéra National du Rhin, conducting a full production of Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys. The season’s highlights also include his debut in China with the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra.

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

Working as Assistant Conductor of Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg in 2022, he also was a Conducting Fellow of the prestigious Verbier Festival that year, returning in 2023. He worked there with renowned conductors such as Zubin Metha, Gianandrea Noseda and Klaus Mäkelä. In 2022, he took part in 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.

Formerly the cellist of the Arod Quartet, Samy Rachid left that ensemble in 2021 to 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.

His journey as the cellist of the Arod Quartet allowed him to learn with great masters such as the Ebene Quartet and Artemis Quartet. In 2015, he won the 1st Prize and two special prizes at the Carl Nielsen String Quartet Competition and in 2016, the 1st Prize and two special prizes at the ARD Competition in Munich. He recorded several albums for Warner Classics.

Samy studied with Mathieu Herzog and assisted him with Orchestre Appassionato on several projects, mainly with prestigious singers such as Roberto Alagna, Ludovic Tezier and Nadine Sierra.

You can see Samy Rachid live with the Auckland Philharmonia on Thursday 14 May at Ehnes Plays Mozart.