Daniel Harding

Daniel Harding took up the Music Director position of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in 2024. He was the Music and Artistic Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2025, the Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris from 2016 to 2019 and the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2017. He is honoured with the lifetime title of Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for over 20 years. In 2024, he took up the position of the Music Director of the Youth Music Culture, The Greater Bay Area for a five-year term.

He is a regular visitor to the world's foremost orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and more.

In 2005, he opened the season at La Scala, Milan, conducting a new production of Idomeneo. He has also conducted Salome, Il Prigioniero, Cavalleria Rusticana, Falstaff and Le nozze di Figaro and Pagliacci, for which he was awarded the prestigious Premio della Critica Musicale “Franco Abbiati”. He has conducted Ariadne auf Naxos and Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; The Turn of the Screw and Wozzeck at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has also conducted new productions of Così fan tutte, La Traviata, Eugene Onegin and more with the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Mahler's Symphony No. 10 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Orff's Carmina Burana with the Bavarian Radio Symphony both received widespread critical acclaim. He has also recorded Billy Budd with the London Symphony Orchestra, which has won Grammy Award for “Best Opera Recording”. His latest recording with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Roma was Puccini's Tosca, released in March 2025 by Deutsche Grammophon.

In 2002, Harding was awarded the title Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and in 2017 nominated to the position Officier Arts et Lettres. Beyond being a conductor, he is also a qualified airline pilot.

Source: Leisure and Cultural Services Department