Daniel Harding

Daniel Harding is the music and artistic director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was music director of the Orchestre de Paris from 2016 to 2019 and principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2017. He is honoured with the lifetime title of conductor laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In 2018, he was named artistic director of the Anima Mundi Festival, and in 2020 he was named conductor in residence of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande for the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons. In October 2024 he will become music director of the Orchestra and Choir of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Daniel Harding works regularly with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonie and the Filarmonica della Scala. In 2005 he opened the season at La Scala, Milan, with a new production of Idomeneo. Since then, he has regularly returned to La Scala. He has also conducted Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Festival; The Turn of the Screw and Wozzeck at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Bavarian State Opera; Die Zauberflöte at the Wiener Festwochen; Pelléas et Mélisande at the Vienna State Opera; and Wozzeck at the Theater an der Wien. He has a long-term connection with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, where he has conducted new productions of Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, The Turn of the Screw, La traviata, Eugene Onegin and Le nozze di Figaro.

His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon – Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 with the Vienna Philharmonic, and Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – both received widespread critical acclaim. For Virgin / EMI his recordings include Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Billy Budd with the London Symphony Orchestra (Grammy Award for best opera recording) and Don Giovanni and The Turn of the Screw (awarded the Choc de l’Année 2002, the Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros and a Gramophone Award) with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Other recordings for these labels include works by Lutosławski with Solveig Kringelborn and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and works by Britten with Ian Bostridge and the Britten Sinfonia (Choc de l’Année 1998). For BR Klassik he has released critically acclaimed recordings of Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust and Mahler’s Symphony No. 6. His performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Frank Peter Zimmermann are available on Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings.

In summer 2022 Daniel Harding took over conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in concerts at the Salzburg Festival, the Lucerne Festival and the BBC Proms, replacing Kirill Petrenko, who was unwell. In the 2022/23 season he has toured with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, given concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic in Berlin and Baden-Baden, and made his debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic. He has also returned to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Vienna State Opera, where he conducted Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci.

In 2002 Daniel Harding was awarded the title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and in 2017 named Officier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2012 he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2021 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He is a qualified airline pilot.