Daniel Harding

Daniel Harding is simultaneously Musical Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and principal guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He was recently honoured with the lifetime title of Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. His previous positions include Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (2003-2011), Principal Conductor of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway (1997-2000), Principal Guest Conductor of Sweden's Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (1997-2003) and Music Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (1997-2003). He is also Associate Conductor of the New Japan Philharmonic and Artistic Director of the Ohga Hall in Karuizawa, Japan.

Daniel Harding began his career assisting Sir Simon Rattle at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with which he made his professional debut in 1994. He went on to assist Claudio Abbado at the Berlin Philharmonic and made his debut with that orchestra at the 1996 Berlin Festival.

He regularly conducts the Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (most notably in Salzburg), the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra. Over the course of past seasons he has conducted the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Oslo Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Francfurt Radio Orchestra and the Orchestre des Champs Elysées. In the United States he has conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

In 2005 he opened the season at La Scala, Milan, conducting a new production of 'Idomeneo'. He returned in 2007 for Salome, in 2008 for Bluebeard's Castle and Il Prigioniero, most recently in 2011 for Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, for which he was awarded the prestigious Premio della Critica Musicale “Franco Abbiati”. His operatic experience also includes Ariadne auf Naxos, and Le nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic, The Turn of the Screw and Wozzeck at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Bavarian Opera in Munich, The Magic Flute at the Vienna Festival and Wozzeck at the Theater an der Wien. During the 2012/2013 season he returned to La Scala to conduct Falstaff and made his debut conducting at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin and Wiener Staatsoper, with Wagner's Flying Dutchman.

Regularly invited to the Aix-en-Provence Festival,, he has conducted new productions of Cosí fan tutte, Don Giovanni, The Turn of the Screw, La Traviata, Eugene Onegin and The Marriage of Figaro. In 2017 He will conduct The Rake's Progress with the Orchestre de Paris there.

Daniel Harding records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. His recordings of Mahler's 10th Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana have been very well received by critics. For Warner/Erato he had previously recorded Mahler's 4th Symphony with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Brahms 3rd and 4th Symphonies with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Britten's Billy Budd with the London Symphony Orchestra (Grammy award for the best opera recording), 'Don Giovanni and the Turn of the Screw with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (“Choc de lAnnée 2002” “Grand Prix de lAcadémie Charles Cros” and Gramophone Award). His recording of Scenes from Goethe's Faust with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was particularly appreciated by critics.

In 2002 he was awarded the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and in 2012 he was elected a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Music.