Daniel Harding

Daniel Harding is Music and Artistic Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris from 2016 – 2019 and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2007 – 2017. He is honoured with the lifetime title of Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for over 20 years. In 2024 he took up the position of Music Director of the Youth Music Culture, The Greater Bay Area in China. The 2024/2025 season will be his first as Music Director at the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

He is a regular visitor to the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Filarmonica della Scala. In the US, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. In 2005 he opened the season at La Scala, Milan, conducting a new production of “Idomeneo”. He later returned to conduct “Salome”, “Il Prigioniero”, “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci” (for which he was awarded the prestigious Premio della Critica Musicale ‘Franco Abbiati’), “Falstaff” and “Le nozze di Figaro”. He has conducted “Ariadne auf Naxos”, “Don Giovanni” and “Le nozze di Figaro” at the Salzburg Festival with the Wiener Philharmoniker; “The Turn of the Screw” and “Wozzeck” at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, “Der fliegende Holländer” at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, “Die Zauberflöte” at the Wiener Festwochen, “Pelléas et Mélisande” and “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci” at the Wiener Staatsoper and “Wozzeck” at the Theater an der Wien. He is closely associated with the Aix-en-Provence Festival, 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 Symphony No. 10 with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Orff’s “Carmina Burana” with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks both received widespread critical acclaim. For Virgin/EMI he has recorded Mahler Symphony No. 4 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brahms’ Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; “Billy Budd” with the London Symphony Orchestra (winner of a Grammy Award for best opera recording), “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; works by Lutosławski with Solveig Kringelborn and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and works by Britten with Ian Bostridge and the Britten Sinfonia (awarded the Choc de L’Annee 1998). For BR Klassik he has released critically acclaimed recordings of Schumann “Szenen aus Goethes Faust”, Mahler Symphony No. 6 and Holst “The Planets”. His performances of Mahler Symphony No. 1 and Beethoven Violin Concerto with Frank Peter Zimmerman are available on the Berliner Philharmoniker label. A regular collaborator with Harmonia Mundi, his latest recordings with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra include “The Wagner Project” with Matthias Goerne; Mahler Symphonies no. 5 & 9, Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem and a newly released Britten disc. 

This season sees Daniel Harding begin his inaugural season as Music Director of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with concert performances of “Tosca” and Verdi’s Requiem, both of which will be recorded for Deutsche Grammophon. He returns to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker, The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, London Symphony Orchestra and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. He will embark on major tours to Europe with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. 

In 2002 Daniel Harding was awarded the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and in 2017 nominated to the position Officier Arts et Lettres. In 2012, he was elected a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2021, he was awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours. He is a qualified airline pilot.