NEW YORK CITY: Park Avenue Armory has appointed Pierre Audi its new artistic director. He will begin his new post in October; he replaces Alex Poots.

“Pierre is a trailblazer, an artist himself, and a visionary artistic director of tremendous breadth and first-class producing skills,” said Rebecca Robertson, the armory’s president and executive producer, in a statement.

Audi is the founder and former artistic director of the Almeida Theatre in London. In 1988, he was appointed as head of the Dutch National Opera, where he will continue to lead, making him the longest-serving opera leader in the world. From 2004 to ’14, he served as the artistic director of the Holland Festival. He is the recipient of the Leslie Boosey Award, the Prize of Holland’s Theatre Critics, the Netherlands State Prize for the Arts and the Johannes Vermeer Award. Audi was knighted in the Order of the Dutch Lion in 2000 and was made Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2006 in France.

In a statement, Audi described his plans for the armory as “commissioning work across all art forms from the most innovative artists of our time, deepening and broadening the mission of this young institution with its immense potential to become a major international force, and appealing to new audiences.”