Andrew Litton

About

Official Site: http://www.andrewlitton.com/

In his twelfth season as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony, New York-born Andrew Litton is one of but a handful of Americans heading a major American orchestra. During his tenure he has raised the orchestra's international profile, led the orchestra on three major European tours, appeared four times at Carnegie Hall, and produced over 25 recordings, one of the largest recent outputs of any American orchestra. The Dallas/Litton partnership, one of the longest and most successful in America, is being extended beyond 2006 when Litton becomes Music Director Emeritus of the orchestra. Litton is in his third season as the first ever American Music Director of Norway’s 240-year-old Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He also is Artistic Director of the Minnesota Orchestra's Sommerfest and continues as Conductor Laureate of Britain’s Bournemouth Symphony, which he headed from 1988 to 1994.

Highlights of the 2004-05 season included a return to Carnegie Hall leading the Dallas Symphony and Chorus in Orff's Carmina Burana, guest appearances with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, a debut with the NHK Orchestra resulting in an immediate re-engagement by one of Japan’s top orchestras, and a return to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as a major European tour with the Bergen Philharmonic, including three programs in Vienna. Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic have just initiated a recording relationship with BIS records, with a forthcoming release of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.

Litton opens the 75th Anniversary Season of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center this summer and then returns to Colorado for the Dallas Symphony’s seventh annual residence at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, concluding with a concert performance of Bizet’s Carmen. In his third season as Artistic Director of the Minnesota Orchestra Sommerfest, Litton augments his conducting with chamber music events as pianist, including a concert with clarinetist Osma Vanska, Minnesota Orchestra Music Director. This fall he returns to the English National Opera leading performances of Britten’s Billy Budd in the same production which earned him rave reviews at the Welsh National Opera.

Litton's complete Rachmaninov Concerto series for Hyperion, recorded live in concert with pianist Stephen Hough and the Dallas Symphony, won the coveted 2005 Classical Brits/BBC Critics Award, after having received extraordinary critical acclaim worldwide.

Litton has appeared as guest conductor with more than 110 of the world's top orchestras and opera companies, including those of New York, Moscow, Tokyo, Israel, France, all the major orchestras of Britain, and the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, and the opera houses of Dallas, St. Louis, and Los Angeles.

Litton’s more than 60 recordings include a Grammy winning Walton's Belshazzar's Feast with Bryn Terfel and the Bournemouth Symphony, and a live performance recording of Sweeney Todd with the New York Philharmonic (Grammy nomination), a Decca Walton Centennial boxed set, and the complete Tchaikovsky Symphonies with the Bournemouth Symphony, the complete Rachmaninov Symphonies with the Royal Philharmonic and many Gershwin recordings, both as conductor and pianist, with the Dallas Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, and Royal Philharmonic.

Andrew Litton, a graduate of the Fieldston School, New York, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard in piano and conducting. The youngest-ever winner of the BBC International Conductors Competition, he served as Assistant Conductor at Teatro alla Scala and Exxon/Arts Endowment Assistant Conductor for the National Symphony under Rostropovich. Andrew Litton holds an honorary Doctorate from the University of Bournemouth and is a recipient of Yale University’s Sanford Medal for his musical achievements. Litton resides in Dallas where he is a highly visible and active member of the community.

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