Kent Nagano

Kent Nagano is considered one of today’s outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. He will be the next Chief conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España (OCNE) in Madrid starting in September 2026 and is the newly appointed Principal Artistic Partner of Filarmonica Toscanini. In addition, he is committed together with Jan Vogler as Artistic Director of the Ring project “The Wagner Cycles” of Dresdner Musikfestspiele with Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln alongside Jan Vogler. He has been Honorary Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin since 2006, Concerto Köln since 2019, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 2021 and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg since 2023 and is as patron of the Herrenchiemsee Festival. As a much sought-after guest conductor, Kent Nagano regularly works with leading international orchestras worldwide, 2025/26 season highlights include several projects with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Maggio Musicale, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Opera de Paris, and the Philharmonia Orchestra amongst others. The 2024/25 season was Kent Nagano’s final season as General Music Director in Hamburg. Highlights of tenure included opera productions such as ‘Boris Godunov’, ‘Salome’, performances of Sciarrino’s ‘Venere e Adone’ and Britten’s ‘Peter Grimes’, ‘Les Troyens’, ‘Lulu’, ‘Lessons in Love and Violence’, and the world premiere of ‘Stilles Meer’, as well as ‘Les Contes d’Hoffmann’ in the new production by Daniele Finzi Pasca (released on DVD by EuroArts, February 2022). Other highlights were the “Philharmonic Academy” at St. Michaelis, open-air concerts at the Rathausmarkt, and the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s ‘Waves’ for organ and orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie. Orchestral tours with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg have taken Nagano to Japan, Taiwan, China, Spain, and South America. Previous operatic highlights include the revival of Ligeti’s ‘Le Grand Macabre’ in a production by Krzysztof Warlikowski at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich last year, Bernstein’s opera ‘A Quiet Place’ at the Paris Opera, the world premiere of Dusapin’s ‘Il Viaggio, Dante’ at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Hindemith’s ‘Cardillac’, Henze’s ‘Die Bassariden’ and the world 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. Nagano’s 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 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 re