Spend a few minutes with the conductor Jonathan Nott, and you quickly understand how he is able to energize an orchestra. His conversation is rapid and intense, fueled by an inner fire, so compelling are his musical convictions. For the last five years, the Bamberg Symphony, in Bavaria, has been the main beneficiary of Mr. Nott’s talents. The way he revitalized this orchestra – which has a proud history but was marking time when he became its music director – is one of the major recent success stories in the orchestra world.

On Friday Mr. Nott makes his New York debut conducting the orchestra in the first of two concerts in Avery Fisher Hall. More New York events will soon follow. Later this month he returns with the Ensemble Intercontemporain for two contemporary programs, and in January he will debut with the New York Philharmonic. “I’m glad the orchestra has the chance to do two concerts – it makes it a kind of mini-residency,” Mr. Nott told me in a telephone interview from Bamberg.

As is typical for Mr. Nott, the programs are carefully conceived. Not by chance do they reflect his dual passions for traditional and contemporary repertoire. Each concert will feature works by Beethoven, Mahler, and Gyorgy Ligeti; each will have as soloist the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard – who, as Mr. Nott observed, “also straddles these two worlds.” Mr. Aimard will be heard in a Beethoven concerto in each concert and will also play a selection of solo etudes by Ligeti.

Other conductors might be wary of relinquishing the spotlight to a soloist; not Mr. Nott. “It’s wonderful to have a program where you change the size of the forces,” he said. “The way you listen changes when you’re down to a single instrument, and that’s good for the traditional symphonic concert. You can’t reinvent the wheel or destroy the ritual, but there are ways to find new listening experiences.”

Mixing and matching is one. Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, in the first concert, will be paired with Ligeti’s “Atmospheres” in the second. “At the start of each piece, the composers are trying to do exactly the same thing – standing still in music.” In the Beethoven, “there’s no key established and no indication of where you’re going.”

Mr. Nott is British, educated in Cambridge, Manchester, and London, but his career began in German opera houses in the time-honored way – coaching singers, preparing performances, and eventually conducting them. It is how conductors such as Karl Bohm and Bruno Walter got their starts, and it offers enormous opportunities for a conductor who can take the heat.

“If you can learn quickly and can stand the pressure, you can conduct a tremendous amount of repertoire,” he said. “And you can only learn to conduct by doing it.”

Mr. Nott went first to the Frankfurt Opera, later moving to Wiesbaden. In one single year, he conducted 96 performances, and he led Wagner’s “Ring” cycle at the age of 33. Later Mr. Nott, who was born in 1962, served as music director of the symphony in Lucerne. That is where he continues to make his home with his wife and two young children.

Mr. Nott’s work as an opera conductor flowed naturally from his training as a choirboy at Worcester Cathedral. “It was an amazing education. I had lots of responsibility at the age of 8,” he said. When his voice changed, he continued as a tenor but gravitated toward working with other singers as a pianist and eventually toward conducting. “Singing offers a purity of music making that is unique, and I experience some of this when supporting singers and breathing with them as a conductor,” he said.

Mr. Nott acknowledges that he misses conducting opera, but there was no question he would go to Bamberg when it beckoned. Founded in 1946 by former members of the German Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague, the Bamberg Symphony quickly won state support for tours and recordings that showcased German art. It was long led by Joseph Keilberth and more recently Horst Stein, but Stein’s ill health left it without an active music director. “Decisions were made based on the lowest common denominator – just to survive,” said Mr. Nott.

Since he took over in 2000, the orchestra has regained its position as one of Germany’s leading orchestras. Touring is again frequent, and a five-concert residency at the Edinburgh Festival is scheduled for August. In addition, the orchestra has forged a relationship with Tudor Records, for whom it has recorded symphonies by Bruckner and Mahler, along with a soon-to-be completed cycle of the Schubert symphonies. The Bamberg Symphony’s subscribers currently number around 7,000 – an astonishing proportion of the 70,000 people who live in the picturesque medieval city.

Mr. Nott has also won recognition for his recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic, part of Teldec’s Ligeti project. Indeed, Ligeti became something of a mentor to the contemporary side of Mr. Nott’s music. Mr. Nott heard him in a concert by Amsterdam’s Asko Ensemble early in his career. Mr. Nott went on to serve for three years as music director of the renowned Ensemble Intercontemporain, founded by Pierre Boulez, and currently is the group’s principal guest conductor.

“I don’t believe people when they say ‘I love music but I hate contemporary music,'” he said. “They must have heard the wrong piece or heard it at the wrong time or on the wrong program or played the wrong way. In Bamberg, there is an extreme sense of community, and I like to give pre-concert talks – to point things out and have an exchange of thoughts. After a little bit, the public becomes intrigued with a piece and proud of having enjoyed it.” Mr. Nott’s style of advocacy is sure to win converts here.

Jonathan Nott will conduct the Bamberger Symphoniker May 6 at 8 p.m. and May 8 at 3 p.m. at Avery Fisher Hall and the Ensemble Intercontemporain May 24 & 25 at 8 p.m. at the Rose Theater at Jazze at Lincoln Center (Lincoln Center, 212-875-5656).