Maestro to head Vienna's Symphony Orchestra

Philippe Jordan, the youthful conductor of the Paris Opera, will also head the Vienna Symphony Orchestra from the 2014-2015 season, officials said on Wednesday. Jordan, a 36-year-old Swiss, will replace Italian Fabio Luisi at the helm of Vienna's second-most prestigious ensemble, officials said during a press conference at Vienna's city hall. Luisi's contract with the Vienna house expires at the end of the 2012-2013 season. He will become the musical director at New York's Metropolitan Opera at the start of the 2012 season. Jordan comes from a musical family, with his late father Armin having served as conductor of Switzerland's Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva from 1985 to 1997. He has been at the helm of the Paris Opera since 2009.