Daniel Harding is one of the brightest of a new generation of conductors. Having assisted Sir Simon Rattle at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, he made his professional debut with the orchestra in 1994, for which he won the Royal Philharmonic Society "Best Debut" Award. He assisted Claudio Abbado in the 1995-96 season, culminating in his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the 1996 Berlin Festival.
In 1996 Daniel Harding became the youngest conductor at the BBC Promenade Concerts. He returned to the Proms in 1998 with the Scharoun Ensemble and in 2000 as Music Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. His Prom appearance in August 2003 concluded his six-year tenure with the orchestra.
In the 2003/04 season, he becomes the first Music Director of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. His previous positions include Principal Conductor of the Trondheim Symphony in Norway (1997-2000) and Principal Guest Conductor of Sweden's Norrköping Symphony (1997-2003).
He is a regular visitor to the Dresden Staatskapelle, which he conducted at the 2003 Salzburg Festival; the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio and Swedish Radio Orchestras. With the London Symphony Orchestra, in addition to series concerts, he conducts the biennial composers’ competition, Masterprize.
Other guest conducting engagements have included the Berlin Philharmonic, 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 Canada he has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston and Toronto Symphony Orchestras. He will soon make his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No.10.
In opera he has conducted new productions of ‘Don Giovanni’ directed by Peter Brook, ‘The Turn of the Screw’ directed by Luc Bondy and ‘Eugene Onegin’ directed by Irina Brook, all at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Katie Mitchell’s production of ‘Jenufa’ for Welsh National Opera. He recently made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in Deborah Warner’s production of ‘The Turn of the Screw’ and at the Bavarian State Opera in ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’. Future engagements include new productions of ‘La Traviata’ at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and a new production of ‘Così fan tutte‘ in Aix, at the Opera National de Paris and in Vienna.
Daniel Harding records exclusively for Virgin Classics. His recordings include Beethoven Overtures and Brahms Symphonies 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”, “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.
