Donald Runnicles

Donald Runnicles ( born November 16, 1954 in Edinburgh ) is a British conductor.

Life

Runnicles studied at Edinburgh and Cambridge and began his musical career in 1980 as a coach in Mannheim. He worked as an assistant at the Bayreuth Festival and as a guest conductor with various European orchestras. He was music director with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Freiburg in 1989.

After he had taken over the short term at the Metropolitan Opera in 1988 a performance of Berg's Lulu, and in 1990 conducted two performances of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, 1992, he was Music Director of the Opera House of San Francisco. In addition to works by Mozart, Strauss and Wagner, he conducted, among others the North American premiere of Tippett's King Priam and Messiaen St.Francois d' Assise and the world premiere of Conrad Susa Dangerous Liaisons and John Adams ' Dr. Atomic.

In 1991, he headed the Glyndebourne Festival, the performance of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni for its 200th Anniversary. Since 1993 he has been a regular guest of the Edinburgh Festival. He has conducted, among others the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonic Israel, Munich and the Vienna Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He conducted at the Bayreuth Festival, the Proms and the Salzburg Festival, where he among other things, Erich Wolfgang Korngold performed the dead city. At the Vienna State Opera, he conducted several years Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung and the 2001 Vienna premiere of Britten's Billy Budd.

Furthermore Runnicles Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and since 2006 music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. 2001 to 2006 he was principal conductor of New York's Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Since 2009 he has been engaged as general music director of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Runnicles in 2004 was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Discography

  • Engelbert Humperdinck 's "Hansel and Gretel"
  • Vincenzo Bellini 's "I Capuleti e Montecchi i "
  • Christoph Willibald Gluck " Orphée et Euridice
  • Stewart Wallace " Harvey Milk " ( libretto Michael Korie ), live recording
  • Benjamin Britten " Billy Budd ", live recording
  • Erich Wolfgang Korngold " The Dead City ", live recording
  • Richard Wagner excerpts from Der Ring des Nibelungen and Siegfried Idyll with the Staatskapelle Dresden
  • Carl Orff 's "Carmina Burana " with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
  • Mozart's Symphonies Nos. 39 and 41 with the Orchestra of St. Luke's
  • Ludwig van Beethoven " 9 Symphony " with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
  • Richard Wagner 's "Tristan und Isolde ", a live recording of the BBC London
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