Daniel Harding

Born in Oxford in 1975, Daniel Harding began his career as an assistant to Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado. He made his debuts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1994 with, in 1996, with the Berliner Philharmoniker, with whom he continues to appear regularly. His first chief conductor positions were with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which named him Conductor Laureate for Life in 2011. From 2007 until the summer of 2025, he was Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and from 2016 until 2019 he was also Chief Conductor of the Orchestre de Paris. Starting with the 2024-25 season, he is Music Director of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In addition, he took up the post of Music Director of Youth Music Culture, The Greater Bay Area (YMCG) in China in 2024. Daniel Harding works as a guest with the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the major American orchestras. He has appeared many times as an opera conductor at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He received the Premio Abbiati, the prize bestowed by Italian music critics, for his performances of Verdi’s Falstaff and Schubert’s Fierabras at La Scala, Milan. He has also been engaged by the Vienna, Bavarian, and Berlin Staatsoper companies and the Royal Opera House in London for various productions. His recordings have received numerous awards, including a Grammy for Britten’s Billy Budd. Daniel Harding has been a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres since 2002 and, since 2012, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music; he was appointed Commander in the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2021. In addition to his musical work, he has obtained a license to fly commercial aircraft.

Lucerne Festival debut on 16 August 2003 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in works by Haydn, Kelterborn, and Schumann.

March 2025