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Kent Nagano

General Music Director of Hamburg

Kent Nagano

Kent Nagano is considered one of today’s outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. Since September 2015, he has been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg. In addition, he is committed as Artistic Director of the Ring project “The Wagner Cycles” of Dresdner Musikfestspiele with Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln, and as patron of the Herrenchiemsee Festival. 2023 he was appointed Honorary Conductor of the Philharmonic State Orchestra, in 2021 of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, in 2019 of the Concerto Köln, and in 2006 of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

The 2023/2024 season in Hamburg begins with four concerts, performing with the Philharmonische Akademie at the Laeiszhalle, then with the Philharmonic State Orchestra at the Rathausmarkt Open Air and the Elbphilharmonie. This will be followed by a series of opera productions at the State Opera in September and October, with a premiere of Mussorgski’s Boris Godunow in a production by Frank Castorf and a premiere of Strauss’s Salome in a production by Dmitri Tcherniakov, as well as performances of Sciarrino’s Venere e Adone and Britten’s Peter Grimes. Furthermore, as in every season Nagano will conduct symphonic concerts with the Philharmonic State Orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie, including the New Year’s performance.

His past years in Hamburg include opera productions such as Les Troyens, Lulu, Lady Macbeth von Mzensk, the world premiere of Stilles Meer and German premiere of Lessons in Love and Violence, the "Philharmonische Akademie" at St. Michaelis, open-air concerts at the Rathausmarkt and the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin's work Waves for organ and orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie. Orchestral tours with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg have taken Kent Nagano to Japan, Spain and South America.

Kent Nagano has worked with the world's leading international orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique Radio France, the Orchestre de l’Opéra national in Paris, the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Wiener Symphoniker. Special projects were productions of Wagner's Das Rheingold with Concerto Köln and the Bernstein opera A quiet place at the Paris Opera. His operatic work has included Dusapin‘s Il viaggio, Dante at the Festival d‘Aix-en-Provence, Hindemith's Cardillac and Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites at the Opéra National de Paris and Henze’s The Bassarids and the premiere of Saariaho's L’amour de loin at the Salzburg Festival. Other world premieres conducted by Nagano include Bernstein's A White House Cantata and the operas Alice in Wonderland by Unsuk Chin, Three Sisters by Peter Eötvös and The Death of Klinghoffer and El Niño by John Adams.

The 2023/24 season will see Kent Nagano make a wide variety of appearances at the Maison symphonique in Montréal, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Konzerthalle in Bamberg and the Kulturpalast in Dresden. In addition, he will conduct the Orchestre de l'Opera de Lyon and lead a new production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre by Krzysztof Warlikowski at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

Under the artistic direction of Kent Nagano and the Intendant of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele Jan Vogler, Wagner's "Ring Tetralogy" will be performed in the artistic context of the period in which it was composed, based on the latest findings of research into Wagner and performance practice, and integrated into an extensive supporting program as part of the multi-year project "The Wagner Cycles" of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele from 2023 to 2026. The prelude was the performance of "Das Rheingold" at the Dresden Music Festival in 2023 and the tour to Cologne, Ravello and Lucerne under the musical direction of Kent Nagano. With "Die Walküre," the second work in the epochal narrative will follow in 2024.

Highlights of Kent Nagano's collaboration with the OSM as Music Director from 2006 to 2020 included the inauguration of the orchestra’s new concert hall La Maison Symphonique in September 2011, performances of the complete cycles of Beethoven and Mahler symphonies, Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, concert versions of Wagner's Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde and Das Rheingold, Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au Bücher, and Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise. Tours have taken Nagano and the orchestra to Canada including the Northern Territories, Japan, South Korea, Europe (latest 2019), Latin America and the USA. In July 2018, Kent Nagano conducted Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion with the OSM at the Salzburg Festival opening concert.

His recordings with the OSM on Sony Classical/Analekta include Mahler’s Orchestral Songs with Christian Gerhaher in 2013 and a complete recording of all of Beethoven’s symphonies in 2015. Decca released a recording of the North American premiere of L'Aiglon, a rarely performed opera by Honegger and Ibert in 2016, conducted by Nagano in 2015. Further releases by Decca are Danse Macabre with works by Dukas, Saint-Saens, Ives and others in 2016 as well as a recording of Bernstein's A quiet place in 2018 on the occasion of the composer's 100th birthday. John Adams' Common tones in simple time & harmony (Decca) was released in 2019, the Lukas Passion by Penderecki (BIS) and works by Ginastera, Bernstein and Moussa (Analekta) in 2020.

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. New productions included Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Frau ohne Schatten, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites, Messiaen’s Saint François d'Assise, Berg’s Wozzeck, George Benjamin's Written on skin and Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Tours took Nagano and the Bavarian State Orchestra through Europe and Japan. In addition to Bruckner's Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7 (Sony), Kent Nagano has released several opera performances with the Bavarian State Orchestra on DVD: Unsuk Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland (2008) and Mussorgsky's Chowanschtschina (2009) with unitel classica/medici arts, Dialogue des Carmélites with Bel Air Classiques (2011) and Lohengrin (2010) with Decca.

Another very important period in Nagano’s career was his time as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2000-2006. He performed Schönberg’s Moses und Aron with the orchestra (in collaboration with Los Angeles Opera) and took them to the Salzburg Festival to perform both Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules and Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten, as well as to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with Parsifal and Lohengrin in productions by Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Recordings with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin for Harmonia Mundi include repertoire as diverse as Bernstein’s Mass, Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 6, Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge, Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Schönberg’s Die Jakobsleiter and Friede auf Erden, as well as Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 and Schönberg’s Variationen für Orchester Op. 31. In June 2006, at the end of his tenure with the orchestra, Kent Nagano was given the title Honorary Conductor by members of the orchestra – only the second recipient of this honour in their 60-year history. To this day he maintains a close friendship with the orchestra.

In October 2019, Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama expanded their joint recordings of Beethoven's works for piano and orchestra with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 0 E-flat Major WoO 4, a nearly unknown work from the composer’s youth, and his Rondo for Piano and Orchestra WoO 6 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The complete edition of Beethoven’s piano concerti was released on the Berlin Classics label.

Nagano 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 Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin. He has worked with labels such as BIS, Decca, Sony Classical, FARAO Classics and Analekta for many years, and has also recorded CDs with Berlin Classics, Erato, Teldec, Pentatone, Deutsche Grammophon and Harmonia Mundi.

To celebrate Kent Nagano's 70th birthday in 2021, a 3-CD box set of works by Olivier Messiaen was released in October on the BR Klassik label. The release includes live recordings of the works Poèmes pour Mi, Chronochromie and La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ from his concerts with the Symphonieorchester und Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, demonstrating Nagano's close familiarity with Messiaen's musical language in a special way.

In September 2021, Kent Nagano published his second book with Berlin Verlag. In "10 Lessons of my Life", he recalls ten deeply personal encounters from which he learned important lessons, not only for his career but for his life more broadly. Among those experiences are encounters with the Icelandic pop artist Björk, Frank Zappa, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez and the Nobel Prize winner in physics Donald Glaser.
In 2015 Kent Nagano published "Erwarten Sie Wunder!" also in Berlin Verlag, a passionate appeal for the relevance of classical music in today's world. In 2019 the book was released in English by the Canadian McGill-Queen's University Press under the title ″Classical Music - Expect the Unexpected" and in 2015 under "Sonnez, merveilles!" in French by Éditions du Boréal.

Born in California, Nagano maintains close connections with his home state and was Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra from 1978-2009. His first major successes came with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1984, when Messiaen appointed him assistant to conductor Seiji Ozawa for the premiere of his opera Saint François d'Assise. 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). Kent Nagano became the first Music Director of Los Angeles Opera in 2003 having already held the position of Principal Conductor for two years.

Kent Nagano was awarded an honorary doctorate from McGill University in Montréal in 2005, an honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal in 2006, and an honorary doctorate from San 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, Kent Nagano was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal President.

Find further information about Kent Nagano here.

Performances

photo: Claudia Höhne

Tenor

Stuart Skelton

Tenor

Stuart Skelton

Stuart Skelton is regarded as one of the best heldentenors of his generation, his repertoire includes roles such as Parsifal and Lohengrin, the part of Erik ("The Flying Dutchman"), Siegmund ("Die Walküre"), Florestan ("Fidelio"), with which he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 2002, Der Kaiser ("Die Frau ohne Schatten") in 2003 and Britten's "Peter Grimes". Born in Australia, he studied at the Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where he graduated in 1995. Other roles in his repertoire include King Arthur in the world premiere of Albeniz' "Merlin" in Madrid, his debut at the Hollywood Bowl in 2003 as well as his performance with the Los Angeles Symphonic Orchestra and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on the occasion of the memorial service for the victims of the 11 September attacks. In the 2004/05 season, the tenor sang the roles of Parsifal, Don José ("Carmen") in Sydney, the tenor parts in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Dvořák and Verdi's "Requiem" and Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde", among others, in Vienna, Frankfurt, Adelaide, Genoa, Hamburg and Los Angeles. Stuart Skelton made his debut at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in the title role of "Dimitrij", also at the Edinburgh Festival as Adolar ("Euryanthe"), and received special recognition for his interpretation of Siegmund in the new production of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" at the State Opera of South Australia. In the 2005/06 season, he made his debut at the Opéra National de Paris as the Prince ("Rusalka"). His current repertoire includes "Lohengrin", the title roles in "Rienzi", "Peter Grimes", "Samson and Dalila", "Dmitrij" and "Parsifal", Siegmund ("Die Walküre"), Bacchus ("Ariadne auf Naxos"), Erik ("Der fliegende Holländer"), Florestan, Max ("Der Freischütz"), Oedipus ("Oedipus Rex"), Prince ("Rusalka"), Laca ("Jenufa") and Don José. In February 2007 Stuart Skelton made his debut at the Hamburg State Opera as the Emperor in "Die Frau ohne Schatten", in the 2008/09 season he sang Siegmund in the new production of "Die Walküre".

Performances

photo: John Wright

Mezzosopran

Karen Cargill

Mezzo-soprano

Karen Cargill

Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill is one of the most renowned singers of her generation. Winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier Award, Karen has gone on to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Operatic Recording as part of the Metropolitan Opera’s recording of Dialogues des Carmélites. In July 2018 Karen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Karen’s operatic roles include Geneviève Pelléas et Mélisande, Judith Bluebeard’s Castle, Mère Marie Dialogues des Carmélites, Dryade Ariade auf Naxos, Dido Dido and Aeneas & Anna Les Troyens. Famed for her interpretation of Wagner, Karen regularly sings Erda Das Rheingold and Siegfried, Fricka Das Rheingold, Brangäne Tristan und Isolde, Waltraute Götterdämmerung and Magdalena Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Last season Karen made her role debut as Zia Principessa Il trittico for Scottish Opera directed by Sir David McVicar and returned to Glyndebourne for a new Barrie Kosky production of Dialogues des Carmélites as Mère Marie.

In opera, the 23/24 season sees Karen return to Glyndebourne as Brangäne Tristan und Isolde cond. Robin Ticciati, Judith in concert performances of Bluebeard’s Castle with the Boston Symphony Orchestra cond. Karina Cannellakis, and Fricka Die Walküre in a concert tour with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Further ahead, Karen returns to the Metropolitan Opera and makes her house debut with the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.

Enjoying longstanding relationships with several conductors, Karen’s 23/24 plans include collaborations with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in her return to the Metropolitan Opera for the Verdi Requiem, Alma Mahler Lieder with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Lili Boulanger’s Psalm 130 with the Orchestre Métropolitain and Fricka Die Walküre in a concert tour with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. With Robin Ticciati and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Karen sings Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Act II Tristan und Isolde & Das Lied von der Erde, as well as for the Wiener Symphoniker. Elsewhere, Karen sings Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra cond. Esa-Pekka Salonen and with Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal cond. Patrick Hahn, Das Lied von der Erde with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra cond. Alpesh Chauhan and with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra cond. Matthias Pintscher, the Verdi Requiem with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra cond. Kazuki Yamada and with the Philharmonia Orchestra cond. Santtu-Matias Rouvali, and La Mort de Cleopatre with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

With her recital partner Simon Lepper Karen has performed at Wigmore Hall London; Concertgebouw Amsterdam; Kennedy Centre Washington and Carnegie Hall New York, and regularly gives recitals for BBC Radio 3. With Simon, Karen also recently recorded a critically acclaimed recital of Lieder by Alma and Gustav Mahler for Linn Records, for whom she has previously recorded Berlioz Les nuits d’été and La mort de Cléopâtre with Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Karen is Patron of the National Girls’ Choir of Scotland and sang in the National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication for King Charles III following his Coronation in 2023.

Performances

photo: Nadine Boyd

Klavier

Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Pianist

Pierre-Laurent Aimard

“A brilliant musician and an extraordinary visionary” (Wall Street Journal), Pierre-Laurent Aimard is widely acclaimed as an authority in music of our time while recognised also for shedding fresh light on music of the past. His international schedule of creatively conceived concerts, broadcasts and recordings is complemented by a career-long commitment to teaching, giving concert lectures and workshops worldwide.
Pierre-Laurent Aimard has had close collaborations with many leading composers including Helmut Lachenmann, Elliott Carter, Harrison Birtwistle, György Kurtág, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Marco Stroppa, Pierre Boulez, and Olivier Messiaen. During the 2023/24 season he celebrates the music of György Ligeti with projects throughout Europe, North America, Japan and China. Guest Concerto appearances include Czech Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Orchestre
National de France, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. Aimard’s
extensive recital touring takes in Southbank Centre London, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Musikverein Wien, Philharmonie Luxembourg and Concertgebouw as well as Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco. At Paris’ Theatre des Champs Elysees he collaborates with French actor Denis Podalydès for an exploration of Fateless with music by Ligeti, Kurtag, Schoenberg and Cage. Aimard also continues his association with long-standing chamber music partners, most notably Tamara Stefanovich at the Tonhalle Zürich and Madrid’s Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical, and jazz pianist Michael Wollny at Frankfurt Alte Oper.
Upcoming world premieres include Clara Iannotta’s Piano Concerto for the Acht Brucken Festival in Cologne and the Portuguese premiere of Klaus Ospald’s Se da contra las piedras la libertad, a work co-commissioned by Casa da Musica, Porto and Cologne’s WDR Symphony Orchestra. Past premieres by Aimard include Carter’s last piece Epigrams; Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s works Responses; Sweet disorder and the carefully careless and Keyboard Engine for two pianos.
The season begins with the September release of a new recording of the complete Bartók piano
concertos with Esa-Pekka Salonen and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. This record is the latest in a series of critically acclaimed collaborations with Pentatone, following Visions de l’Amen (2022) recorded with Tamara Stefanovich; Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata & Eroica Variations (2021), and Messiaen’s magnum opus Catalogue d’oiseaux (2018) which garnered multiple awards including the prestigious German music critic’s award “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.”
An innovative curator and uniquely significant interpreter of piano repertoire from every age, Aimard has been invited to direct and perform in numerous residencies including recently for Musikkollegium Winterthur where over the season he celebrated different composers and opened with the complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Concertos. Elsewhere, he has performed ground-breaking projects at Porto’s Casa da Musica, New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Konzerthaus Vienna, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Lucerne Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Tanglewood Festival, the
Edinburgh Festival, and as Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 2009 to 2016.
Aimard is the recipient of many prizes, receiving the prestigious International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2017 in recognition of a life devoted to the service of music and the Leonie Sonning Music Prize, Denmark’s most prominent music award in 2022.
A member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Aimard has held professorships at the
Hochschule Köln and was previously an Associate Professor at the College de France, Paris. In
spring 2020, he re-launched a major online resource Explore the Score in collaboration with the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, which centres on the performance and teaching of Ligeti’s piano music.

Performances

Orchester

Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg