Donald Runnicles

About

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

Highlights of Mr. Runnicles's 2005-2006 season include leading the world premiere performances of Dr. Atomic, the new opera by John Adams and Peter Sellars, at the San Francisco Opera. It is a complex, Faustian work about the development of the atomic bomb 60 years ago. In addition to the three other operas he leads in San Francisco - L'italiana in Algeri, Fidelio and The Maid of Orléans - Mr. Runnicles will also conduct Die tote Stadt, Der Rosenkavalier and Parsifal at the Vienna State Opera, where he returns annually. He will have return engagements with both the Cleveland Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic, where he made a spectacular debut in 2003 conducting Britten's War Requiem. Mr. Runnicles will spend four weeks with the Atlanta Symphony; he will also conduct the Orchestra of St. Luke's in three Carnegie Hall concerts, as well as the BBC Symphony and the London Symphony Orchestra. One of his Atlanta programs, orchestral songs of Richard Strauss with Christine Brewer, will be recorded by Telarc.

Donald Runnicles was born in Scotland (Edinburgh, November 16, 1954) and educated there and at Cambridge University; soon afterwards he went to Germany to work in opera. To learn his art from the ground up, he took a répétiteur job in Mannheim in 1980, coaching singers and attending rehearsals. He made his North American debut in 1988 at a few hours' notice conducting Berg's Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera, and in 1989 was named General Music Director at the Freiburg Opera. He made his 1991 Glyndebourne debut conducting Don Giovanni in the production observing the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death. He has also conducted frequently at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals.

The San Francisco Opera offered Mr. Runnicles the opportunity to conduct two Wagner Ring cycles in 1990, and he was soon invited to become Music Director, succeeding Sir John Pritchard. Now in his second decade as Music Director, Mr. Runnicles has led more than 40 productions in the house, including the highly-acclaimed North American premiere of Olivier Messiaen's St. François d'Assise and world premieres of Conrad Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons and of Michael Korie and Stewart Wallace's Harvey Milk. Other notable productions include rarities like Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein's The Mother of Us All, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Busoni's Doktor Faust - in addition to the 1990 Ring cycles and a wide variety of repertory staples.

In recent seasons the maestro has led San Francisco stagings of Madama Butterfly, Otello, Hänsel und Gretel, La Damnation de Faust, Die Meistersinger, Kát'a Kabanová, Falstaff and Turandot. Last season he conducted Billy Budd, Tosca, Der fliegende Holländer, and Pique Dame. Donald Runnicles has led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus in two recordings: Harvey Milk and the Grammy-nominated Orphée et Eurydice by Gluck.

Mr. Runnicles's unique bond with New York's esteemed Orchestra of St. Luke's was apparent from their first concert together, in 1998. The orchestra's members soon chose him as their Principal Conductor, to succeed Sir Roger Norrington. In addition to Carnegie Hall season concerts, he conducts the OSL at its summer home, the Caramoor Festival, outside New York City.

Mr. Runnicles has ongoing musical relationships with some of the finest orchestras and opera companies in the U.S. and Europe. Among those in the U.S. are the San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony and the New World Symphony. Last season Mr. Runnicles made his debut appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is a frequent guest on the podiums of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, North German Radio Orchestra Hamburg (NDR) and Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Munich. He appears annually in Great Britain at both the London Proms and the Edinburgh Festival, and each year he works at the Vienna State Opera. He has also led productions in the opera houses of Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Milan, Munich, Paris and Zurich. He led the Vienna premiere of Britten's Billy Budd.

Donald Runnicles's recordings include a new Mozart Requiem with the Atlanta Symphony, the Beethoven Ninth Symphony and Orff's Carmina Burana with Atlanta, a Grammy-nominated CD with tenor Ben Heppner of German Romantic opera arias, a disc of Ring excerpts with the Dresden Staatskapelle, Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and a CD with soprano Jane Eaglen of works by Strauss, Wagner and Berg.

Among the many awards bestowed upon Donald Runnicles are the OBE - bestowed during his 50th-birthday gala at the San Francisco Opera - and an honorary degree from Edinburgh University.

Donald Runnicles and his wife Elizabeth live with their young family in San Francisco - the three precious daughters are called Alexandra, Tamara Sophie and Ashley Isolde.

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