Biography

Kent Nagano is renowned for interpretations of clarity, elegance and intelligence.  He is equally at home in music of the classical, romantic and contemporary eras, introducing concert and opera audiences throughout the world to new and rediscovered music and offering fresh insights into established repertoire.  In September 2006 he became Music Director of both the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.
Born in California, Nagano maintains close connections with his home state and was Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra from 1978-2008.  His early professional years were spent in Boston, working in the opera house and as assistant conductor to Seiji Ozawa at the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  He played a key role in the world premiere of Messiaen’s opera Saint François d’Assise at the request of the composer, who became a mentor and bequeathed his piano to the conductor.  Nagano’s success in America led to European appointments: Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon (1988-1998) and Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra (1991-2000).
For Bayerische Staatsoper Nagano has commissioned new operas by Wolfgang Rihm (Das Gehege), Unsuk Chin (Alice in Wonderland) and Jörg Widmann along with new productions of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, Idomeneo, Eugene Onegin, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Schweigsame Frau, Les Dialogues des Carmélites, St François d’Assise, Wozzeck and Der Ring des Nibelungen.  With the Bayerisches Staatsorchester Nagano has toured throughout Europe and in Japan and together they have recorded Bruckner Symphonies No4 and 7 released on Sony.
With Montreal Symphony highlights include the complete cycles of Beethoven and Mahler Symphonies, Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, concert versions of Wagner's Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Das Rheingold and Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise, and concert series featuring the works of Dutilleux (2010-2011) and Boulez (2011-2012).  Nagano has taken the orchestra on a coast-to-coast tour of Canada and also to Japan, South Korea and in April 2009 an extensive tour throughout Europe.  Their recordings together include the Juno award winning Beethoven: Ideals of the French Revolution and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde on Sony Classical/Analekta.
A new and important phase of Nagano’s career opened when he became Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Berlin in 2000.  He has become a prominent figure in a new wave of artistic thinking in Germany, opening minds to inventive, confrontational programming.  In June 2006, at the end of his tenure with the orchestra, he was given the title Honorary Conductor by members of the orchestra, only the second recipient of this honour in their sixty-year history.
Kent Nagano became the first Music Director of Los Angeles Opera in 2003 having already held the position of Principal Conductor for two years.  His work in other opera houses has included Shostakovich’s The Nose (Staatsoper Berlin), Rimsky Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel (Châtelet, Paris), Hindemith’s Cardillac (Opéra national de Paris), Dialogues des Carmélites (Metropolitan Opera) and at the Salzburg Festival Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Zemlinsky’s Der Koenig Kandaules, Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten and the World premiere of Saariaho’s L’amour de loin.  Other World premieres include Bernstein’s A White House Cantata and operas by Peter Eötvös (Three Sisters), and John Adams (The Death of Klinghoffer and El Niño).
As a much sought after guest conductor Nagano has worked with most of the world’s finest orchestras including the Vienna, Berlin and New York Philharmonics, the Chicago Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle and Leipzig Gewandhaus. He has an ongoing relationship with Sony Classical and has also recorded for Erato, Teldec, Pentatone and Deutsche Grammophon as well as Harmonia Mundi, winning Grammy awards for his recordings of Busoni’s Doktor Faust with Opéra National de Lyon, Peter and the Wolf with the Russian National Orchestra and Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin with the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin.