Born in Oxford, Daniel Harding began his career assisting Sir Simon Rattle at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with which 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.
He is the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor 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 is a regular visitor to the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Vienna Philharmonic (both of which he has conducted at the Salzburg Festival), the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. Other guest conducting engagements have included the 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, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Orchestras 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.
In 2005 he opened the season at La Scala, Milan, conducting a new production of "Idomeneo". He returned in 2007 for "Salome" and in 2008 for a double bill of "Bluebeard"s Castle" and "Il Prigionero". His operatic experience also includes "The Turn of the Screw" and "Wozzeck" at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and "Don Giovanni" and "Le nozze di Figaro" at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic. Closely associated with the Aix-en-Provence Festival, he has conducted new productions there of "Così fan tutte" directed by Patrice Chereau, "Don Giovanni" directed by Peter Brook, "The Turn of the Screw" directed by Luc Bondy, "La Traviata" directed by Peter Mussbach, "Eugene Onegin" directed by Irina Brook and, most recently, "Le nozze di Figaro" directed by Vincent Boussard. Other engagements have included "Die Zauberflöte" in Vienna, "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, and "Jenůfa" for Welsh National Opera.
Daniel Harding records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon and his first disc for the yellow label, a recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 10 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, has recently been released to critical acclaim. Previously a Virgin/EMI artist, his recordings for that label include Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; Brahms' Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; "Billy Budd" with the London Symphony Orchestra; "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) both 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").
In 2002 he was awarded the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.
| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 7-Feb-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | Mark-Anthony Turnage world première with the LSO at the Barbican |
PhilipGatward01.jpg) Mark-Anthony Turnage and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding, have thoroughly dominated this week in the Barbican Hall. Firstly with a high-profile performance of the composer’s trumpet concerto From the Wreckage on Tuesday, and then the first performance of his new, purely orchestral piece Speranza on the Thursday. One of his longest concert works to date at 45 minutes, it is also one of his most symphonic.Read full review... | |
| 5-Feb-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | Turnage, Harding and Hardenberger with the London Symphony Orchestra |
 Tuesday evening’s concert was technically the start of a short residency for Mark-Anthony Turnage with the London Symphony Orchestra, but a smouldering performance on the podium from Daniel Harding came close to drawing attention away from the featured composer. A curious mixture of Sibelius, Turnage and Beethoven – a combination of composers repeated in Thursday’s concert – served primarily to demonstrate Harding’s versatility in conducting, as well as the strength of his relationship with the LSO.
Read full review... | |
| 14-Dec-2012 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Sensitive interpretations of Sibelius and Schumann from the New York Philharmonic and David Zinman |
 On Friday morning here in the United States, 27 individuals lost their lives in a tragic mass shooting. I would like to preface this review by expressing my sincere condolences for all affected by the tragedy.
Read full review... | |
| 3-Aug-2012 Haus für Mozart | Ariadne auf Naxos dismantled at the Salzburg Festival |
 Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Ariadne auf Naxos was first performed in 1912, in a production directed by Max Reinhardt. Unlike the version usually seen today, this first Ariadne was a long-winded play-opera-ballet hybrid, incorporating a full production of Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme with dances to incidental music by Strauss followed by the short opera. Less than a decade later these three men would found the Salzburg Festival, so it seems only appropriate that the festival is celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Ariadne.Read full review... | |
