Conducting

Daniel Cohen is the General Music Director of the Staatstheater Darmstadt, where current plans include productions of Fidelio, Die Zauberflöte and Lohengrin, a ballet production of Le sacre du printemps and a series of symphonic concerts. Recent and upcoming highlights include debuts with the Vienna Symphony conducting Don Quichotte at the Bregenz Festival and with the Norwegian Opera conducting Le Nozze di Figaro; and returns to the Teatro Massimo di Palermo with Idomeneo, the Israeli Opera with Così fan tutte and the Deutsche Oper Berlin for Don Giovanni. In addition, Cohen is scheduled to conduct symphony concerts with the Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester, Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, among others.

Following his successful debut at the Staatsoper Berlin conducting Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Cohen was invited back to conduct performances of Die Zauberflöte, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Turn of the Screw. Cohen was also Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 2015 to 2017, where he conducted a number of productions from La traviata to Georg Friedrich Haas’s new opera, Morgen und Abend.

Other operatic highlights include an acclaimed debut with the Canadian Opera Company with La clemenza di Tito and a new production of Die Zauberflöte at the Macerata Opera Festival. Cohen also works frequently with the Israeli Opera.

Cohen’s symphonic work has brought him to orchestras worldwide including the Staatskapelle Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino among others.

Contemporary repertoire is of keen interest to Cohen, who was an assistant of Pierre Boulez at the Lucerne Festival Academy. He pursues this passion as Artistic Director of The Gropius Ensemble and has also collaborated with members of the London Symphony Orchestra as part of their LSO Soundhub programme for young composers.

While still a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Cohen was appointed Music Director of the Jersey Chamber Orchestra, where he was Chief Conductor for 10 seasons. Cohen has also been a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

Photo by Kaupo Kikkas

Born in 1974, Edward Gardner was educated at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. He went on to become Assistant Conductor of The Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne on Tour. His many accolades include the Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor Award, Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and an OBE for services to music.

Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra since October 2015, Gardner has led the orchestra on multiple international tours and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival. Gardner was recently appointed Principal Conductor Designate of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, his tenure commencing in September 2021.

In demand as a guest conductor, Gardner has worked with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker and at the Royal Opera House in a new production of Káťa Kabanová (praised as a ‘magnificent interpretation’ by the Guardian).

Upcoming plans include a revival of Benoît Jacquot’s 2004 production of Werther at the Royal Opera House and La damnation de Faust for The Metropolitan Opera; four concerts for the London Philharmonic Orchestra; and bringing the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s acclaimed Peter Grimes to the Royal Festival Hall.

Gardner also continues his longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010-16, and BBC Symphony Orchestra, which he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms. Music Director of English National Opera for 10 years (2006-15), Gardner also has an ongoing relationship with New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

A passionate supporter of young talent, Gardner founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with the Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music, which appointed him their inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014.

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

‘Unmatched for podium presence’ (New York Classical Review) and with an ‘ability to create viscerally arresting performances’ (LA Times), Susanna Mälkki is one of today’s most sought-after conductors in the world.

Mälkki continues to guest-conduct at the very highest level, with recent appearances including return visits to the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, and the Münchner Philharmoniker and Orchestre national de Lyon.

This is Mälkki’s fourth season as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, with plans including premieres by leading national composers Kaija Saariaho and Lotta Wennäkoski and a new work by Felipe Lara. As part of her third season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mälkki paid tribute to the late Oliver Knussen with his Violin Concerto. She was previously Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

A renowned opera conductor, Mälkki was to make her debut at the postponed 2020 Festival d’Aix en Provence, conducting the world premiere of Saariaho’s new opera, Innocence, having returned to the Opéra national de Paris to conduct Philippe Boesmans’ Yvonne, princesse de Bourgogne. In 2018, she debuted at the Wiener Staatsoper in Gottfried von Einem’s Dantons Tod; December 2016 marked her debut at The Metropolitan Opera for its premiere of Saariaho’s L’amour de loin.

A former student of the Sibelius Academy, Mälkki studied with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. In June 2010, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Other awards include the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, Musical America’s 2017 Conductor of the Year and the Nordic Council Music Prize.

Photo by Simon Fowler

Following eight years as Music Director, Ludovic Morlot is now Conductor Emeritus of the Seattle Symphony. During his time there, Morlot’s innovative programming has encompassed not only his choice of repertoire, but theatrical productions and performances outside the traditional concert hall space. There have been numerous collaborations with musicians from different genres, commissions and world premieres. Under Morlot’s baton, 19 recordings have been released under the Seattle Symphony Media label, the orchestra has received five Grammy Awards and was also named Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year.

Current plans include Morlot’s debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna Symphony. He is also an Associate Artist of the BBC Philharmonic.

Morlot has a strong commitment to working with young musicians and is scheduled to conduct student orchestras at Yale University and at the Royal Academy of Music, as well as returning to the Aspen Festival. He is Artistic Director of the National Youth Orchestra of China and, in 2019, led their European Tour, having conducted their inaugural concerts in New York and China two years earlier.

Morlot has conducted, among others, the Berliner Philharmoniker, Czech Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared at the BBC Proms, Wien Modern and Edinburgh International Festival. Other recent notable performances have included the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Houston Symphony. Morlot has a particularly strong connection with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which he has conducted in subscription concerts in Boston, at Tanglewood and on a tour to the west coast of America.

Morlot was Chief Conductor of La Monnaie for three years, during which time he conducted several new productions including La clemenza di Tito, Jenůfa and Pelléas et Mélisande, as well as concert performances in both Brussels and at the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival.

Trained as a violinist, Morlot studied conducting at the Monteux School & Music Festival, Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music. He is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington School of Music and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.

Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco

Sir Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool and studied at the Royal Academy of Music.

From 1980 to 1998, Sir Simon was Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and was appointed Music Director in 1990. He moved to Berlin in 2002 and held the positions of Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker until he stepped down in 2018. He became Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra in September 2017 and spent the 2017-18 season at the helm of both ensembles.

Music education is of supreme importance to Sir Simon and his partnership with the Berliner Philharmoniker broke new ground with their education programme, Zukunft@Bphil, earning him the Jan Amos Comenius Prize, the Schiller Prize from the city of Mannheim, a Golden Camera and a Urania Medal. He and the Berliner Philharmoniker were also appointed International UNICEF Ambassadors in 2007 – the first time this honour has been conferred on an artistic ensemble.

Sir Simon has also been awarded several prestigious personal honours including a knighthood, becoming a member of the Order of Merit and being given the Freedom of the City of London.

Sir Simon has longstanding relationships with the leading orchestras in London, Europe and the USA, initially working closely with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra. He regularly conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and is also a Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Founding Patron of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Photo by Oliver Helbig

Internationally renowned and Olivier Award-winning conductor Mark Wigglesworth is one of the outstanding musicians of his generation, as much at home in the opera house as the concert hall. Through a broad repertoire ranging from Mozart to Boulez, he has forged enduring relationships with many orchestras and opera houses throughout the world.

Wigglesworth has enjoyed a long relationship with English National Opera (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Cosi fan Tutte, Falstaff, Katya Kabanova, Parsifal, The Force of Destiny, The Magic Flute, Jenůfa, Don Giovanni and Lulu). Operatic engagements elsewhere include the Royal Opera House (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) and The Metropolitan Opera (The Marriage of Figaro), as well as at the Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Real, The Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne and Opera Australia. In 2017, he received the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.

On the concert platform, highlights include performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Wigglesworth’s recordings include a critically acclaimed complete cycle of the Shostakovich Symphonies with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic; Mahler’s Symphony No 6 in A minor and Symphony No 10 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; a disc of English music with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes with Glyndebourne; and the Brahms Piano Concertos with Stephen Hough.

He has written articles for the Guardian and the Independent, made a six-part TV series for the BBC, Everything to Play For, and held positions as Associate Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and, most recently, Music Director of English National Opera. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. His book, The Silent Musician: Why Conducting Matters, was published in October 2018 by Faber & Faber.

Photo by Ben Ealovega