Biography
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In
his sixth season as Music Director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Sir
Andrew Davis is also Artistic Advisor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Conductor Laureate of the Toronto Symphony as well as the BBC Symphony,
Andrew Davis’ remarkably varied repertoire ranges from baroque
to contemporary, with world premieres of many symphonic and operatic
works to his credit. Known to audiences worldwide from his BBC Proms
appearances, he is a notable interpreter of much twentieth century music,
including Janacek, Messiaen, Boulez, Elgar, Tippett and Britten, as
well as the core symphonic repertoire. He has toured extensively, has
made many acclaimed recordings and regularly guest conducts leading
European and North American orchestras.
Music Director at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 1988 to 2000,
Sir Andrew Davis has conducted operatic productions at the Lyric Opera
of Chicago, The Metropolitan Opera, New York; Milan’s La Scala;
San Francisco Opera; Bavarian State Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden, the Dresden Semper Oper and his Bayreuth debut in the summer
of 2002. He returned to Bayreuth in 2003. Appointed the BBC Symphony
Orchestra’s Chief Conductor in 1989, he maintained and enhanced
the tradition of innovative programming, which has given the orchestra
its justly deserved reputation as one of the world’s most versatile
ensembles. He conducted many of their major projects, London Proms (including
the famed Last Night) and tours, among them Hong Kong (1990), Japan
(1990, 1993, 1997. 2002), the United States (1995 and 1998) and Europe
(1992 and 1996). In August 1997, he conducted their Salzburg Festival
debut.
Upon his appointment at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, in addition to relinquishing
his Glyndebourne post, he also gave up his post with the BBC Symphony.
The longest-serving Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since
its founder Sir Adrian Boult, he became their first-ever Conductor Laureate,
with regular London appearances, including Proms each year. He has also
returned to Glyndebourne as guest conductor. Music Director of the Toronto
Symphony for many seasons, he currently holds the post of Conductor
Laureate with that orchestra.
Future and recent-past orchestral engagements include returns to leading
ensembles that include the New York Philharmonic, Boston, Chicago, San
Francisco, Pittsburgh and Toronto Symphonies, Philadelphia and Cleveland
Orchestras; the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw, the
NDR Hamburg, the Vienna Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle and the
Leipzig Gewandhausorchester.
Andrew Davis has recorded the Dvorak Symphonies with the Philharmonia,
the Mendelssohn Symphonies with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and a Borodin
cycle with the Toronto Symphony for CBS. Other recordings include the
Shostakovich Violin concertos, Brahms Piano concertos and Nielsen Symphonies
Nos. 4 and 5 for Virgin Classics. Most recent recording projects include
The British Line, a major series with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for
Warner Classics International. This acclaimed series has included the
Elgar Symphonies and Enigma Variations, a complete Vaughan Williams
symphony cycle and music by Delius, Britten and Tippett. Operatic releases
include the Glyndebourne productions of Katya Kabanova, Jenufa and Queen
of Spades.
Andrew Davis received the 2003 Dushkin Award from the Music Institute
of Chicago. He received a Royal Philharmonic Society/Charles Heidsieck
Music Award in 1991 for leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra through an
outstanding Diamond Jubilee season, for his excellence in the operatic
field, particularly as the Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera
and for his championing of British music, especially the music of Tippett.
In May 1995 he accepted on behalf of Glyndebourne Festival Opera the
Royal Philharmonic Society award for the best musical opera performance
of 1994 for its production of Eugene Onegin. The 1996 Glyndebourne Opera
Production of Lulu won the prize for Best Video in the 1997 Gramophone
Awards and in September 1998 his recording of Birtwistle’s ‘Mask
of Orpheus’ with the BBC Symphony Orchestra won a Gramophone Award
for Best Contemporary Recording. His recording of the Elgar/Payne Symphony
No. 3 in November 1998 won the Critics Choice Award for National Public
Radio – Performance Today. In January 2000 Glyndebourne Opera’s
Pelleas et Mélisande, which he conducted, won the South Bank
Show award for Opera. In recognition of his services to music, Andrew
Davis was awarded the CBE in May 1992 and in January 1999, he was made
a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours List.
February 2006
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