Early career While in high school, Gelb began his association with the
Metropolitan Opera as an usher. At age 17, Gelb began his career in classical music as an office boy to
impresario Sol Hurok. Gelb managed the
Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 1979 China tour. The following year Gelb became
Vladimir Horowitz's manager. Gelb assisted the pianist in the revival of his performing career, and managed his return to Russia in 1986. In 1982, Gelb founded, and was president of, CAMI Video, a division of
Columbia Artists Management. In this capacity, for six years he was executive producer of "The Metropolitan Opera Presents", the Met's series of televised opera broadcasts. Gelb produced 25 televised productions for the Met.
Sony Classical Gelb was president of
Sony Classical Records from 1995 to 2006. Gelb pursued a strategy of emphasizing
crossover music over mainstream
classical repertoire. Examples include cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who was encouraged to record
Americana, including an album with fiddler and composer
Mark O'Connor and double-bassist and composer
Edgar Meyer,
Appalachia Waltz; electronic composer
Vangelis, who recorded the choral symphony
Mythodea; and
Charlotte Church, a pop artist who started her career as a classical singer.
Metropolitan Opera Gelb became the 16th General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, taking over from
Joseph Volpe, on August 1, 2006. He launched his tenure with several new productions, including
Madama Butterfly directed by
Anthony Minghella;
The Barber of Seville by
Bartlett Sher; and
Tan Dun's new opera
The First Emperor directed by
Zhang Yimou. Gelb launched a number of new ventures for the Met, such as taking advantage of new media technology to distribute Met performances to a wider global audience. This became
The Met: Live in HD series, the Met becoming the first performing arts company to offer live high-definition broadcasts of its operas to cinemas and other performing arts centers in many countries of the world. The series gained both a
Peabody and an
Emmy Award. Digitally recorded performances were later offered on public television stations and released on
DVDs and for streaming via Met Opera on Demand. During his tenure at the Met, Gelb has spearheaded the production of contemporary works, including the staging of two of
John Adams's operas,
Doctor Atomic and
Nixon in China, with a third Adams opera,
The Death of Klinghoffer, premiering in October 2014. His other ideas have included an annual "family-oriented" presentation at
Christmas time, and collaborations with
Lincoln Center Theater to develop new musical works with musicians such as
Wynton Marsalis,
Rachel Portman, and
Rufus Wainwright. In January 2007 Gelb announced a commission for a new opera from
Osvaldo Golijov, tentatively scheduled for the 2010–11 season. However, following the death in 2008 of
Anthony Minghella who was to have written the
libretto, the premiere was postponed to 2018. Gelb, whose contract was extended in November 2019 until 2027, has taken measures to increase ticket sales, suspending performances in February when sales are slowest, extending the season until June, and adding Sunday matinees. The Met also instituted Fridays under 40, a program offering discounted tickets to younger audience members. The Met also raised the number of new productions, including those of recent operas and works written for the Met. In 2021–22, in collaboration with Met Music Director
Yannick Nezet-Seguin, he programmed three contemporary works and seven new productions in 2022–23. Gelb has also diversified casts and staff at the Met.
Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which opened the 2021–22 season, was the first work on the Met stage by a Black composer and featured the Met's first Black director, Camille A. Brown (who co-directed with James Robinson).
X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X by
Anthony Davis received a new production in the fall of 2023. Mr. Gelb also named three composers of color to its commissioning program: Valerie Coleman, Jessie Montgomery, and Joel Thomson. In 2021, he appointed Marcia Sells as the Met's first chief diversity officer. Five women conductors took the podium in 2021–22, the most ever in a Met season. In 2025, Gelb negotiated an agreement with the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under which the Met would receive more than $200 million over 8 years in exchange for an annual winter residency at the Royal Diriyah Opera House in
Riyadh. This donation was in the wake of financial difficulties that had led the Met to withdraw more than a third of the money in its endowment fund. In January of 2026, Gelb stated that the contribution from the Saudis had been delayed and as a result, the Met would be reducing the number of productions in its next season, laying off 22 employees, and was considering selling the
Chagall murals that had been commissioned for the opera house's lobby. In April, the Saudis officially withdrew their offer of funds.
Metropolitan Opera and the pandemic In 2020, while live performances were on hiatus due to the pandemic, Gelb organized the start of Nightly Met Opera Streams, free online presentations of archival performances. The program lasted 16 months, with over 20 million views. In July 2020, The Met launched the Met Stars Live in Concert initiative, a pay-per-view service.
Metropolitan Opera and Ukraine Under Gelb's leadership, the Metropolitan Opera acted to express solidarity with
Ukraine over the Russian invasion. Within days of the attack, the Met Opera and chorus sang the Ukrainian national anthem ahead of a regularly scheduled performance. Two weeks later, the Met organized a benefit concert on behalf of Ukraine. Gelb, in cooperation with the Polish National Opera, organized the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, which was made up of Ukrainian musicians inside and outside of the country. The orchestra, led by Gelb's wife, the conductor
Keri-Lynn Wilson, toured during the summer of 2022, traveling to 12 cities in Europe and the United States as an expression of support for Ukraine and to raise money for its people. The Met continues to present Russian works and engage Russian singers, performing Tchaikovsky's “Eugene Onegin” in the spring of 2022 and Shostakovich's “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” in the fall of 2023. == Awards and recognitions ==