Cristian Măcelaru, winner of a GRAMMY award, serves as the Music Director for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France. He is also the Artistic Director of the George Enescu International Festival and Competition, as well as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra at Interlochen Arts Center. Additionally, he holds the positions of Music Director for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and Principal Conductor for the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne, where he will continue as an Artistic Partner in the 2025-2026 season after serving as Principal Conductor during the 2024-2025 season.

Măcelaru recently conducted the Orchestre National de France and the Radio France Choir at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, performing the Olympic Anthem as the flag was raised beneath the Eiffel Tower. The event was viewed by 1.5 billion people worldwide. Măcelaru and the Orchestre National de France continued their 2024-2025 season with tours across France, Germany, South Korea, and China. His European guest appearances include debuts with the Oslo Philharmonic, as well as return engagements with the Vienna Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. In North America, he conducted the Baltimore, Minnesota, and St. Louis symphony orchestras.

His previous seasons include European collaborations with the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. In North America, he has conducted the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Philadelphia symphony orchestras.

In 2020, he received a GRAMMY Award for his recording of Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto on Decca Classics, featuring violinist Nicola Benedetti and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. He also recently released an album of Enescu’s symphonies and the two Romanian Rhapsodies with the Orchestre National de France, recorded on Deutsche Grammophon.