SIR ANDREW DAVIS,
one of Britain's leading conductors, is continually in demand as a guest
artist with leading European, North American and Far Eastern orchestras.
For many seasons a regular visitor to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (where he led successful cycles of Mozart, Strauss, Janacek and Tchaikovsky operas), he became their Musical Director in 1988. As guest conductor, recent seasons have included regular visits to the Chicago Lyric Opera; productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York; San Francisco Opera; his acclaimed Bavarian State Opera debut (Peter Grimes, 1991) and Rosenkavalier for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1994/95.
His first appearance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was in 1970. Appointed their Chief Conductor in 1989, he has maintained and enhanced the tradition of innovative programming which has given the orchestra its justly deserved reputation as one of the world's most versatile ensembles. He conducts many of their major projects, London Proms (including the famed Last Night) and tours, among them Hong Kong (1990), Japan (1990, 1993, 1997), the United States (1995) and Europe (1992 and 1996). In August 1997, he conducted their Salzburg Festival debut and in March 1998 led their North American tour.
Symphonic guest conducting over the past few seasons has included NDR Hamburg, Vienna Symphony, Boston and Toronto Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1995/96, he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; projects with them include a number of tours and a series of CD recordings. In addition to BBC SO and Glyndebourne commitments, future engagements include returns to leading orchestras in North America and Europe, including Boston, Chicago, Toronto Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestras, London Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Berlin Staatskapelle, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Santa Cecilia Rome. He will also be returning to the Met in January 2000.
In September 2000, he will become Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Chicago Lyric Opera. At that point, he will relinquish his Glyndebourne Festival Opera and BBC Symphony appointments. The longest-serving Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since its founder Sir Adrian Boult, he will become its first-ever Conductor Laureate, with regular London appearances, including Proms each year. He will also return to Glyndebourne as guest conductor .
Andrew Davis has recorded the Dvorak Symphonies with the Philharmonia, the Mendelssohn Symphonies with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and a Borodin cycle with the Toronto Symphony for CBS. Other recordings include the Shostakovich Violin concertos, Brahms Piano concertos and Nielsen Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 for Virgin Classics. Current recording projects include The British Line, a major series with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for Warner Classics International. This acclaimed series has included the Elgar Symphonies and Enigma Variations, a complete Vaughan Williams symphony cycle and music by Delius, Britten and Tippett. Operatic releases include the Glyndebourne productions of Katya Kabanova, Jenufa and Queen of Spades.
Andrew Davis received a Royal Philharmonic Society/Charles Heidsieck
Music Award in 1991 for leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra through an outstanding
Diamond Jubilee season, for his excellence in the operatic field, particularly
as the
Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera and for his championing
of British music, especially the music of Tippett. In May 1995 he
accepted on behalf of Glyndebourne Festival Opera the Royal Philharmonic
Society award for the best musical opera performance of 1994 for its production
of Eugene Onegin. The 1996 Glyndebourne Opera Production of Lulu
won the prize for Best Video in the 1997 Gramophone Awards and in September
1998 his recording of Birtwistle's 'Mask of Orpheus' with the BBC Symphony
Orchestra won a Gramophone Award for Best Contemporary Recording .
In recognition of his services to music, Andrew Davis was awarded the CBE
in May 1992 and in January 1999, he was made a Knight
Bachelor in the New Year Honours List.
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