Composer Thomas Ades heads to Boston Symphony

Thomas Ades, often considered one of the leading contemporary composers, was named Thursday to a new three-year position at the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The English composer and pianist will later this year begin a new position of artistic partner at the orchestra, which will premiere an original piano concerto by Ades in the 2018-19 season.

In November, Ades will conduct his "Totentanz," a macabre exploration of death inspired by a 15th-century painted cloth in a church in Luebeck, Germany.

Ades will also direct the 2018 and 2019 festivals of contemporary music at Tanglewood, the summer home of the orchestra in the woods of western Massachusetts.

The 45-year-old composer -- who has also won acclaim for his operas, including an adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" -- said he felt he shared "a musical wavelength" with the orchestra when they first played together five years ago.

"It seems natural now to broaden the experience beyond conducting and chamber music to include composing specifically for these gifted players and teaching alongside them," Ades said in a statement.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment as it unveiled its 2016-17 season, which will include 14 programs led by its music director Andris Nelsons, the Latvian conductor who is a young star in the classical music world.

Renee Fleming, one of the most famous sopranos, will star in a performance led by Nelsons of the comic opera "Der Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss.

The season will throw a spotlight on the piano, with 10 of the world's most celebrated pianists in performance including Emanuel Ax, Helene Grimaud, Mitsuko Uchida and Lang Lang, who will open the season on September 24 with Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3.

The season will end with a concert that includes Mahler's Fourth Symphony, a bright work that describes a child's view of Heaven, featuring the soprano Kristine Opolais, who is married to Nelsons.