Daniel Harding

Born in Oxford in 1975, Daniel Harding began his career assisting Sir Simon Rattle at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with whom he made his professional debut in 1994. He went on to assist Claudio Abbado at the Berlin Philharmonic and made his debut with the orchestra at the 1996 Berlin Festival. 

In 2003, he became the first Music Director of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. His previous positions include Principal Conductor of the Trondheim Symphony in Norway (1997-2000), Principal Guest Conductor of Sweden's Norrköping Symphony (1997-2003) and Music Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (1997-2003). He has been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, to commence at the start of the 2006/07 season, and Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from January 2007.

He is a regular visitor to the Dresden Staatskapelle, which he conducted at the 2003 Salzburg Festival; the Concertgebouworkest, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Frankfurt Radio Orchestras. Other guest conducting engagements have included the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Oslo Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées. In the U.S. and in Canada he has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston and Toronto Symphony Orchestras. He made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic conducting Mahler’s Symphony No.10 and has since returned for Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Berlioz’ Harold in Italy. 

His operatic experience includes new productions of Così fan tutte directed by Patrice Chereau of which the DVD was released in the summer of 2006, Don Giovanni directed by Peter Brook, The Turn of the Screw directed by Luc Bondy, La Traviata directed by Peter Mussbach and Eugene Onegin directed by Irina Brook, all at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Katie Mitchell’s production of Jenůfa for Welsh National Opera. He made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2002 in Deborah Warner’s production of The Turn of the Screw and at the Bavarian State Opera in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In December 2005 he opened the season at La Scala, Milan, making his debut at the house conducting Idomeneo. In the 2005/06 season he also returned to Covent Garden where he conducted performances of Berg’s Wozzeck and to the Aix-en-Provence Festival for Die Zauberflöte. He also made his operatic debut at the Theater an der Wien with Die Zauberflöte and at the Salzburg Festival conducting Don Giovanni with the Vienna Philharmonic. In the 2006/07 season he will return to La Scala, Milan, to conduct Salome and will conduct Le nozze di Figaro at the Aix and Salzburg Festivals.

Daniel Harding’s most recent recordings include Mahler’s Symphony No.4 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He has also recorded Beethoven Overtures and Brahms’ Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (awarded the “Choc de l'Année 2002”, the “Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros” and a Gramophone award) both with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; works by Lutoslawski 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”). 

In 2002 he was awarded the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.