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 and, in 1996, with the Berlin Philharmonic, with which he still performs regularly. His first leadership positions took him to the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which elected him Honorary Conductor for Life in 2011. Since 2007, Harding has helmed the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which he will remain associated until 2025. He also held the reins of the Orchestre de Paris from 2016 to 2019; he will take over as Music Director of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome in 2024. Daniel Harding also works with the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as leading American orchestras. From 2021 to 2023, he was conductor-in-residence with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. As an opera conductor, he has appeared many times at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He was awarded the Premio Abbiati, the Italian music critics’ prize, for his performances of Verdi’s Falstaff and Schubert’s Fierabras at La Scala in Milan. The Vienna, Bavarian, and Berlin Staatsoper companies and London’s Royal Opera House have also engaged him for various productions. His recordings have received numerous awards, including a Grammy Award for Britten’s Billy Budd. Daniel Harding has been a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres since 2002 and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music since 2012; in 2021, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In addition to his musical work, he has also obtained a license as a pilot and flies passenger aircraft.

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

July 2023