Eckart Preu

Eckart Preu is the conductor leading the Portland Symphony Orchestra's 2026-2027 season, presiding over programs that range from American folk-inspired works and holiday concerts to large-scale symphonic repertoire by Bruckner, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich. He is credited across multiple subscription and holiday concerts in this directory's listings for Portland, Maine.

Across this season Preu conducts a wide stylistic range. Listeners can expect the open, folk-song lyricism of Copland's Appalachian Spring alongside the brassy energy of Gershwin's Strike Up the Band, then later the dense orchestral color of Rachmaninoff's The Isle of the Dead and the intricate instrumental interplay of Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra. His Bach-to-Bruckner program pairs the intimacy of a solo oboe concerto with the massive, slowly built climaxes of Bruckner's Third Symphony, a piece built from long paragraphs of sound rather than quick tunes. The La Mer concerts set new violin writing against Debussy's shimmering seascape, and the season closes with Rachmaninoff's lushly melodic Second Symphony. Audiences should expect programs balancing familiar orchestral staples with newer or less-performed companion works.