Nagano in Ravello

Kent Nagano is considered one of today’s outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. He will be the next Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España in Madrid starting in September 2026 and is the newly appointed Principal Artistic Partner of Filarmonica Toscanini. From 2015 to 2025, he was the General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, from 2006 to 2020, he was Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and was appointed Conductor Emeritus in February 2021. In 2006 he was appointed Honorary Conductor of the DSO Berlin, after serving as its Music Director from 2000, and in 2019 of Concerto Köln.

Highlights in Hamburg were the premiere of Berlioz’ ‘Les Troyens’, the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s ‘Stilles Meer’, Messiaen’s ‘Turangalîla’ with the Hamburg Ballet and John Neumeier, the ‘Philharmonische Akademie’ – a project in the tradition of musical academies of the 18th/19th century –, the South America Tour with the Philharmoniker Hamburg, the world premiere of Jörg Widmann’s oratorio ‘ARCHE’, composed on the occasion of the inauguration of the Elbphilharmonie in January 2017, and the premieres of Alban Berg’s ‘Lulu’ and Strauss’ ‘Frau ohne Schatten’.

A milestone in Kent Nagano’s collaboration with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal was the inauguration of the orchestra’s new concert hall La Maison Symphonique in September 2011. In October 2016, he conducted the world premiere of José Evangelista’s ‘Accelerando’, commissioned by the orchestra on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Montréal’s metro. In November of the same year he conducted a semi-staged production of the ‘St Matthew Passion’. Further highlights with the orchestra include the complete cycles of Beethoven and Mahler symphonies, Schoenberg’s ‘Gurrelieder’, concert versions of Wagner’s ‘Tannhäuser’, ‘Tristan und Isolde’, ‘Das Rheingold’, Honegger’s ‘Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher’ and Messiaen’s ‘Saint François d’Assise’.

As a much sought-after guest conductor, Kent Nagano has worked with the world’s leading international orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Modern.

Nagano has worked with labels such as Decca, Sony Classical, FARAO Classics and Analekta for many years, but has also recorded with BIS, Berlin Classics, Erato, Teldec, Pentatone, Deutsche Grammophon and Harmonia Mundi. He was awarded Grammys for his recordings of Busoni’s ‘Doktor Faust’ with Opéra National de Lyon, Prokofjew’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ with the Russian National Orchestra and Saariaho’s ‘L’amour de Loin’ with the DSO Berlin.

At the Bayerische Staatsoper, where he was General Music Director from 2006 to 2013, Kent Nagano commissioned new operas such as ‘Babylon’ by Jörg Widmann, ‘Das Gehege’ by Wolfgang Rihm and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Unsuk Chin.

A very important period in Nagano’s career was his time as Music Directr of the DSO Berlin, from 2000 to 2006. He performed Schönberg’s ‘Moses und Aron’ with the orchestra and took them to the Salzburg Festival as well as to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Recordings with the DSO Berlin for harmonia mundi include repertoire as diverse as Bernstein’s Mass, Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos. 3 and 6, Beethoven’s ‘Christus am Ölberge’, Wolf’s Lieder, Mahler’s Symphony No.8 and Schönberg’s ‘Die Jakobsleiter’ and ‘Friede auf Erden’, as well as Brahms’ Symphony No.4 and Schönberg’s Variationen für Orchester, Op.31.

Kent Nagano was awarded Honorary Doctorates from McGill University in Montréal in 2005, the Université de Montréal in 2006, and Francisco State University in 2018. Since 2017, Kent Nagano has been a Compagnon of the Ordre des arts et des lettres of Québec and in the fall of 2023, Kent Nagano was also awarded the title of Chevalier in the Ordre des art et des lettres of France. In February 2024, Nagano was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal President and in June 2024 he was awarded the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honor. Kent Nagano is the recipient of the 2024 Brahms Prize of the Brahms Society of Schleswig-Holstein.

The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) was highlighted by the renowned national newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung as the “orchestral think tank” among the capital city’s orchestras. It is characterized by the rich dramaturgy of its concert programmes, its commitment to contemporary music and regular discoveries of repertoire, as well as the courage to pursue unusual music presentation formats. The DSO has set innovative impulses with electro projects, the production of extraordinary music films, interdisciplinary cooperation and collaboration with ensembles on the independent scene. With its moderated casual concerts including lounge and live act, it has been successfully building a bridge between club and classical music for over 15 years, reaching a broad and diverse audience. Since 2014, it has been bringing amateur musicians together with professionals to form Berlin’s largest spontaneous orchestra, the ‘Symphonic Mob’ – a concept that is now also licensed throughout Europe.

In the 2023/2024 season, the DSO attracted worldwide attention with a feminist music policy initiative under the motto ‘No Concert Without a Female Composer!’; in 2024/2025 it underlined the positioning for an open society and the advocacy for marginalized groups in various concert programmes with the campaign ‘Orchestra for Democracy’. The DSO remained true to this self-image in the 2025/2026 season: under the title ‘Afrodiaspora – Composing While Black’, it became the first orchestra worldwide to place the music of Black composers at the centre of its programming, commissioned new works, and presented cellist Abel Selaocoe as “Artist in Focus”.

With its many guest performances, the DSO is present on the national and international music scene. The orchestra has performed in recent years in Brazil and Argentina, in Japan, China, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi and Eastern Europe, as well as at major festivals such as the Salzburg Festival or BBC Proms. The DSO also has a global presence with numerous award-winning CD recordings. In 2011, it received the Grammy Award for the world premiere recording of Kaija Saariaho’s opera ‘L’amour de loin’ conducted by Kent Nagano.

Founded as the RIAS Symphony Orchestra in 1946, it was renamed the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin in 1956 and has borne its current name since 1993. Since its inception, the DSO has been able to retain outstanding artist personalities. As the first Music Director, Ferenc Fricsay defined the standards in terms of repertoire, acoustic ideal and media presence. In 1964, the young Lorin Maazel assumed artistic responsibility. In 1982, he was followed by Riccardo Chailly and in 1989 by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Kent Nagano was appointed Music Director in 2000. Since his departure in 2006, he has been associated with the orchestra as a Conductor Laureate. From 2007 to 2010, Ingo Metzmacher, from 2012 to 2016, Tugan Sokhiev, and from 2017 to 2024, Robin Ticciati set decisive accents in the musical life of the capital. They will be succeeded by the Japanese Kazuki Yamada, who will lead the DSO as Music Director from the start of the 2026/2027 season.

The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin is an ensemble of the Radio Orchestra and Choirs gGmbH (ROC Berlin). The shareholders are Deutschlandradio, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of Berlin and Radio Berlin-Brandenburg.