The Amsterdam-born conductor Bernard Haitink is currently Music Director of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, a position he took up in August 2002. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (since 1995) and has just been named their conductor emeritus, the first such appointment in the orchestra's 123-year history. Previous posts include the Music Directorship of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden (1988 – 2002), the Concertgebouw Orchestra (1964 – 88), Glyndebourne Festival Opera (1978 – 88) and the London Philharmonic (1967 – 79). He makes regular guest appearances with the world’s leading orchestras.
In the season 2003-4 he will give concerts with the Dresden Staatskapelle at their home in the Semper Oper, Dresden, and tour widely with the orchestra throughout Europe and Japan. He toured in the summer of 2003 with the European Union Youth Orchestra, whose Music Director he was from 1994-99. He performed at the beginning of the season with the Boston Symphony at their home in Symphony Hall Boston and in Carnegie Hall, New York. He will lead tours with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. During the calendar year 2004 he will conduct a special series of concerts at London’s Barbican Hall to mark his 75th birthday, performing with the Dresden Staatskapelle, Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and London Symphony Orchestras.
Bernard Haitink has recorded widely for Philips, Decca and EMI, including complete cycles of Mahler, Bruckner, Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and extensive repertoire with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His discography also includes many opera recordings with the Royal Opera and Glyndebourne, as well as with the Bayerischer Rundfunk and Dresden Staatskapelle. His most recent recordings are releases of live performances with the Orchestre National de Radio France (Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande and Mahler’s 6th Symphony) for the Naïve label. He received a Grammy award in 2004 for his recording of Janacek’s Jenufa with the Orchestra, Soloists and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Mr Haitink has received many international awards in recognition of his services to music, including an honorary KBE and Companion of Honour in the United Kingdom, and the House Order of Orange-Nassau in the Netherlands.
