Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
Jonathan Nott Music Director
In April 2014, Jonathan Nott took over as Music Director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra performing the triumphant Symphony No.9 of Mahler for his inaugural concert with the orchestra. In October 2011 Jonathan Nott made his debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and was immediately offered the post of Music Director.
Jonathan Nott has been Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra since 2000, lifting the ensemble to a prominence acknowledged by their winning of the Midem Award for the best symphonic recording (of Mahler 9) in 2010.
Over the past decade, Jonathan has earned the trust of the Bamberg Orchestra and its audiences, of whom 10% are subscribers to the concert season. Such is their confidence in him that he has been able to lead them into more challenging programming, combining contemporary music with the traditional, whilst giving new insight into standard repertoire.
Nott has regularly toured with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, visiting the USA, South America, China, Japan, the Salzburg Festival and the BBC Proms, to which he returned in July 2013. He achieved much acclaim for his five-concert residency at the Edinburgh Festival in 2003, returning there with his Orchestra for the closing two concerts in September 2012. And in 2013, to celebrate the composer’s bicentenary, he presented concert performances of Wagner’s Ring cycle at the elite Lucerne Festival, the first time this has ever been performed there. Future tours include visits to China, the Netherlands, Belgium, Vienna, Prague, Paris and Baden-Baden.
Jonathan is an inspiration to young musicians. In March 2013 he made his debut with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonic and, at the request of the players, was offered the Principal Conductorship which he takes up in the summer of 2014. His commitment to working with young players extends to his re-engagement with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, with whom he will tour in 2015, and his continuing relationship with the Karlsruhe and Lucerne Music Schools.
Jonathan frequently guest conducts the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and the Royal Concertgebouw, Tonhalle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Stasskapelle and Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestras. In 2012 he made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Future collaborations include a return to the Royal Concertgebouw and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras and the Acadmeiz Nazionale de Santa Cecilia, where he will conduct an all-Beethoven programme, a new production of Elektra at the opera festival in Bari, and his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
Jonathan studied music at Cambridge University, singing and flute at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and conducting in London. His career began working at the Frankfurt and Wiesbaden Operas where he conducted all the major operatic repertoire, including a complete Ring Cycle with Siegfried Jerusalem. During this time he began an enduring collaboration with the Ensemble Modern. From 1997-2002 he was Chief Conductor of the Luzern Symphony Orchestra and between 2000-2003, Principal Conductor of the Ensemble intercontemporain.
During his tenure in Bamberg, Jonathan has established their artist-in-residence series, resulting in extended collaborations with Vadim Repin, Truls Mork and Pierre-Laurent Aimard and a fruitful partnership with the designer Peter Schmidt. Jonathan also initiated and presides over their triennial International Mahler Competition whose first prizewinner was Gustavo Dudamel and whose 2013 recipient was the prodigee of Daniel Barenboim, the 24 year old Israeli Lahav Shani.
Nott has a distinguished recording career. Gyorgy Ligeti became one of his mentors and, with the Berlin Philharmonic, Jonathan recorded the composer’s complete orchestral works for Teldec. Under the Tudor Records label, he has amassed an award-winning discography of works by Mahler, Bruckner, Schubert and Stravinsky recorded with his Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. In early 2013, Sony released a CD, with Nott and the Orchestra, of Wagner excerpts with Klaus Florian Vogt and in August 2013 Tudor released Mahler Symphonies 6 and 8, the completion of Nott’s acclaimed Mahler cycle.
As of April, 2014