Twenty-eight-year-old Andris Nelsons has been named music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He begins his tenure in 2008.

The Lativian conductor replaces Sakari Oramo, who joined the CBSO in 1998 as artistic adviser and was appointed music director the following year. Among Nelsons' other predecessors are Adrian Boult, Louis Fremaux and Simon Rattle.

"He is a hugely impressive musician, with a really wide range of strengths in all kinds of repertoire," orchestra chief executive Stephen Maddock said in statement.

Currently the principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany, Nelsons captivated the CBSO last month when he guest conducted a private concert at Birmingham's Town Hall and recorded Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto with Baiba Skride for Sony/BMG Classics. "From the first rehearsal, the orchestra was very excited by Andris' artistic integrity, imagination, and charisma," said concertmaster Laurence Jackson.

Nelsons will make his first public performance with the CBSO at Birmingham's Symphony Hall in a free concert on November 11, performing Strauss’s Don Juan and Dvorak’s New World Symphony.

Born in Riga in 1978, Nelsons is an accomplished singer and a former trumpeter of the Latvian National Opera Orchestra. In 2001, he received the Latvian Grand Music Award and began conducting studies with Alexander Titov in St. Petersburg. He has been studying privately with Mariss Jansons since 2002. From 2003 to 2007, Nelsons was the principal conductor of the Latvian National Opera House.

By Kevin Shihoten