Kent Nagano
Kent Nagano ( born November 22, 1951 in Berkeley, California ) is an American conductor of Japanese origin.
Life and work
Kent Nagano grew up in Morro Bay, California. His father George Kimiyoshi was an architect and mathematician, his mother Ruth Okamoto was a microbiologist and a good pianist. Both had studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Nagano's paternal grandparents emigrated from Japan to California in 1917 and operated there agriculture with crops. When she seriously diseased, Kent's parents took over the farm of grandparents in Morro Bay. There he grew up without television, cinema and hi-fi, but instead there was a piano. From an early age he made with his family house music. When he was enrolled in the local primary school ( elementary school ), he took part in before and after school to an integrated school of music in mind. He was taught. Piano and clarinet by the trained at the Munich Musikhochschule Georgian Vakhtang Korisheli, a studied philosophers and amateur painter who sometimes were also basic courses in art history or philosophy for children By learning and practicing school and music could take up to 12 hours.
Already eight years old when he directed the church choir. From 1970 to 1974 he studied at the University of Santa Cruz Sociology and Music. He continued his studies in San Francisco continued until 1978. Here he studied with the legendary Laszlo Varga and emigrated, a cellist, among other things, even with the New York Philharmonic was a member. Incidentally, Nagano conducted at the University of the works of his fellow students.
After his studies he went to the opera in Boston as a coach. His reverence for Olivier Messiaen soon led to a friendship with him. Nagano in 1984 known internationally recommended as Messiaen Seiji Ozawa to let him assist in preparing for the premiere of his only opera " Saint François d' Assise ". This rarely performed opera he conducted himself then in 1998 at the Salzburg Festival. Meanwhile, he has the entire concert work Messiaen recorded on tape. From 1984, he conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His career began in 1989 continued in Lyon, where he became musical director of the Opéra National de Lyon, this made until 1998, the second most important opera house in France. In addition, he was from 1991 also Music Director of the second oldest British orchestras, the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester until the end of Season 99 /2000. In 1994 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with Francis Poulenc's " Dialogues des Carmelites ".
2000 Nagano took over the artistic direction of the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin (until season end 2006). In addition, he is also currently a guest conductor in Los Angeles. From 2006 to 2013 Nagano has worked as General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera. He is also Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, in which he extended the contract to 2020. From 2015, he will take over at the Hamburg State Opera to ( there again furnished ) post of director of music.
Nagano is a busy and sought-after star of the international conductors. In addition to his respective managerial roles, he also conducts the most prestigious orchestras in the world. Wherever Nagano for a long time had a commitment, he tried in both tradition and care of the young audiences with an innovative concert program of the classical and the modern introduce. Especially it is also the musical promotion of not only talented young at heart, because he is convinced of the power of cultivation through musical practice, as he had back in his school.
Kent Nagano is married to the Japanese pianist Mari Kodama since 1991 and the couple have a daughter.
Awards
- 2008: Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette
- 2010: Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, the Beethoven Festival Bonn
- 2011: Bavarian Europe medal
- 2013: Bavarian Order of Merit
Quotes
" Due to questions raised by the arts, and answers that challenge them, we experience a beauty that has nothing to do with beautiful appearance. Also, weakness, tragedy or repulsive can be incredibly beautiful. Because nice is any experience that brings us to the essence of things, the ground of all existence closer. [ ... ] I realize that the fine arts, dance, music and theater, can not have the same meaning for every person that they are not as easily accessible as pop art or pop music. "