Marcelo Lehninger most recently led the North Carolina Symphony in 2017; the program included Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 and MOXIE, by Kristen Kuster, and featured pianist Simon Trpčeski performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1.

      Brazilian-born Marcelo Lehninger was appointed Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony in 2016. In 2018, he brought the orchestra to Carnegie Hall, its first performance at the famed venue in thirteen years. He previously 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, he served as Assistant and then Associate Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
      Lehninger’s 2021/22 season includes debuts with the San Antonio Symphony, Peninsula Music Festival, and the Prague Philharmonia in the Czech Republic, and returns to the Sarasota Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, and the Minas Gerais Philharmonic in Brazil.
      Before dedicating his career to conducting, Lehninger studied violin and piano. He holds a Master's degree from the Conductors Institute at New York's Bard College.