Biography
Kent Nagano has established a reputation as a gifted interpreter of both the operatic and symphonic repertoire. He is officially the eighth music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and the 2008-2009 season is his third with the orchestra in that capacity. In September 2006, Mr. Nagano also took over from Zubin Mehta as General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
Born in California, he has been Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra since 1978, and will conclude his tenure there in May 2009. He will assume the title of Conductor Laureate, in addition to continuing his relationship with the organization as Artistic Director of the Berkeley Akademie, a new program dedicated to repertoire for small orchestra. Kent Nagano’s early professional years were spent in Boston, working in the opera house and as assistant conductor to Seiji Ozawa at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He played a key role in the world premiere of Messiaen’s opera Saint François d’Assise at the request of the composer. Mr. Nagano’s success in America led to European appointments: Music Director of the Opéra National de Lyon (1988-1998), Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra (1991-2000) and Associate Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. World premieres from these years include Bernstein’s A White House Cantata and operas by Peter Eötvös (Three Sisters), John Adams (The Death of Klinghoffer and El Niño) and Saariaho (L’amour de loin) at the Salzburg Festival.
A new and important phase of Mr. Nagano’s career opened when he became Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 2000. With the orchestra, he has performed Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron (in collaboration with Los Angeles Opera), and he took them to the Salzburg Festival to perform both Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules and Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten, as well as to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with Parsifal (2004) and Lohengrin (2006). Parsifal, Die Gezeichneten and Lohengrin have been recorded on DVD. Recent recordings with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin for Harmonia Mundi include repertoire as diverse as Bernstein’s Mass, Bruckner’s Third and Sixth Symphonies, Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge, Wolf Lieder, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony and Schoenberg’s Die Jakobsleiter. In June 2006, at the end of his tenure with the orchestra, he was given the title “Honorary Conductor” by members of the orchestra, only the second recipient of this honour in their 60-year history.
Kent Nagano became the first Music Director of Los Angeles Opera in 2003, having already held the position of Principal Conductor for two years. Productions there ranged from a series of Mozart operas, Idomeneo, Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, to Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and Die Frau ohne Schatten, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Tosca, as well as Wagner’s Lohengrin and Parsifal. His work in other opera houses in recent seasons includes Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel (Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris), Britten’s Billy Budd (Bavarian State Opera in Munich) and Hindemith’s Cardillac (Opéra National de Paris). As a much sought-after guest conductor, he has worked with most of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Vienna, Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
He has recorded for Erato, Teldec, Pentatone and Deutsche Grammophon as well as Harmonia Mundi, winning Grammy awards for his recordings of Busoni’s Doktor Faust with the Opéra National de Lyon, and Peter and the Wolf with the Russian National Orchestra. The latter features Sophia Loren narrating Peter and the Wolf, and a new piece by Jean-Pascal Beintus, Wolf Tracks, narrated by Bill Clinton and introductory remarks provided by Mikhail Gorbachev.
For more information on Kent Nagano please visit:
http://www.kentnagano.com/
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