Interview with Donald Runnicles
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Biography
Edinburgh-born Donald Runnicles is Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, having taken up the post on 20 September 2009. He began his career in Mannheim, before making his US debut in 1988 conducting Berg’s Lulu for the Metropolitan Opera New York, and becoming General Music Director of the City of Freiburg in 1989. After two Ring cycles at San Francisco Opera in 1990, he was invited to become Music Director. He is now Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming and Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and recently assumed the post of General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Past highlights include the 2005 world premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in San Francisco, while last season he conducted Das Rheingold, The Magic Flute, The Rake’s Progress and Tannhäuser in San Francisco. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera for a new production of Peter Grimes and to the Vienna State Opera for Der Rosenkavalier and The Flying Dutchman. He has also conducted in many of the most famous European opera houses and has appeared at the Edinburgh, Glyndebourne, Salzburg and Bayreuth festivals.
Donald Runnicles spends four week with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and guest conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Geneva Opera, and Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He first worked with the BBC SSO in August 2001 for a memorable performance of Berlioz’s The Trojans at that year’s Edinburgh International Festival. His most recent appearance with the BBC SSO was at this year’s BBC Proms in London - a programme that included Richard Strauss’s Symphonia domestica.
Donald Runnicles was awarded the OBE in 2004 and holds an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh.
For further information please visit Donald Runnicles' website.
As at September 2009