Dennis Russell Davies
Encyclopedia
Dennis Russell Davies is an American
conductor
and pianist. He studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School
where he received his doctorate. He is a noted champion of living composers and modern music including Hans Werner Henze
, William Bolcom
, Lou Harrison
, Alan Hovhaness
, John Cage
, Philip Glass
, Giya Kancheli
, Arvo Pärt
, Virgil Thomson
, and Aaron Copland
. He has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous pieces by living composers, along with the standard classical works. Of note are the recordings of Copland's Appalachian Spring
with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
in 1979 for which he won a Grammy Award
; Arvo Pärt
Fratres and Miserere; and many of Philip Glass's operas and symphonies including his 5th symphony which is dedicated to Davies. Lou Harrison
's 3rd Symphony is also dedicated to Davies.
Davies served as Music Director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (1972-80). Together with the composer Francis Thorne
he founded the American Composers Orchestra
, New York in 1977 and conducted that orchestra until 2002. Davies served as music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic
from 1990 to 1996.
In 1980, he moved to Stuttgart
, Germany when he became the General Music Director of the Baden-Württemberg State Opera House
(1980-1987). There he premiered two Philip Glass operas along with many standard operas, often in productions with innovative and unusual staging. He has worked with many directors, including Robert Altman
in a collaboration on Salome
in Hamburg. He has also held permanent posts with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn (1987-1995), and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is currently chief conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz
and Linz Opera since 2002, and his current contract in Linz is through 2014.
Davies has also led many festival orchestras including the Aspen Music Festival, the Cabrillo Music Festival, the Saratoga Music Festival and he conducted The Flying Dutchman
at the Bayreuth Festival
as the second American to ever conduct there and one of the youngest (1978-80). Davies is a Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Salzburg Mozarteum.
Davies has had a long-standing and fruitful association with the great jazz pianist Keith Jarrett
. He has conducted Jarrett in classical concerto repertoire (including Mozart and Lou Harrison) as well as himself performing some of Jarrett's own composed music for piano, Ritual
(ECM Records, 1977), and conducting some of Jarrett's orchestral music (featuring Jarrett as soloist as well as saxophonist Jan Garbarek).
In March 2008, Davies was named the third music director of the Sinfonieorchester Basel
, effective with the 2009-2010 season, for an initial contract of five years.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
and pianist. He studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
where he received his doctorate. He is a noted champion of living composers and modern music including Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
, William Bolcom
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
, Lou Harrison
Lou Harrison
Lou Silver Harrison was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison...
, Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...
, John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
, Giya Kancheli
Giya Kancheli
Giya Kancheli , born 10 August 1935, in Tbilisi, is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium.Since 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he is composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic....
, Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from...
, Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
, and Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
. He has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous pieces by living composers, along with the standard classical works. Of note are the recordings of Copland's Appalachian Spring
Appalachian Spring
Appalachian Spring is a modern score composed by Aaron Copland that premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite...
with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra , based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is the United States' only full-time professional chamber orchestra...
in 1979 for which he won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
; Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from...
Fratres and Miserere; and many of Philip Glass's operas and symphonies including his 5th symphony which is dedicated to Davies. Lou Harrison
Lou Harrison
Lou Silver Harrison was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison...
's 3rd Symphony is also dedicated to Davies.
Davies served as Music Director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (1972-80). Together with the composer Francis Thorne
Francis Thorne
Francis Thorne is an American composer of contemporary classical music and grandson of the writer Gustav Kobbé.-Life:...
he founded the American Composers Orchestra
American Composers Orchestra
The American Composers Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New York City. It is the only orchestra in the world dedicated solely to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers...
, New York in 1977 and conducted that orchestra until 2002. Davies served as music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic
Brooklyn Philharmonic
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, commonly known as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, is an American orchestra based in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City...
from 1990 to 1996.
In 1980, he moved to Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Germany when he became the General Music Director of the Baden-Württemberg State Opera House
Staatsoper Stuttgart
The Staatsoper Stuttgart is a German opera company based in Stuttgart, Germany.-History:The Stuttgart Staatsoper forms part of the Stuttgart State Theatre , which is a a three-branch-theatre complex and represents the largest theatre of its kind in Europe...
(1980-1987). There he premiered two Philip Glass operas along with many standard operas, often in productions with innovative and unusual staging. He has worked with many directors, including Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
in a collaboration on Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
in Hamburg. He has also held permanent posts with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn (1987-1995), and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is currently chief conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz
Bruckner Orchestra Linz
The Bruckner Orchester Linz is an Austrian orchestra based in Linz. It is especially associated with the music of Linz-Land native Anton Bruckner. The parent ensemble of the orchestra is the Linz Theater Orchestra. The orchestra acquired its current name in 1967, under conductor and musicologist...
and Linz Opera since 2002, and his current contract in Linz is through 2014.
Davies has also led many festival orchestras including the Aspen Music Festival, the Cabrillo Music Festival, the Saratoga Music Festival and he conducted The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
Der fliegende Holländer is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner.Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write "The Flying Dutchman" following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843...
at the Bayreuth Festival
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...
as the second American to ever conduct there and one of the youngest (1978-80). Davies is a Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Salzburg Mozarteum.
Davies has had a long-standing and fruitful association with the great jazz pianist Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
. He has conducted Jarrett in classical concerto repertoire (including Mozart and Lou Harrison) as well as himself performing some of Jarrett's own composed music for piano, Ritual
Ritual (Keith Jarrett album)
Ritual is an album of contemporary classical music written by Keith Jarrett and performed by on solo piano by Dennis Russell Davies which was recorded and released on the ECM label in 1977.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Richard S...
(ECM Records, 1977), and conducting some of Jarrett's orchestral music (featuring Jarrett as soloist as well as saxophonist Jan Garbarek).
In March 2008, Davies was named the third music director of the Sinfonieorchester Basel
Sinfonieorchester Basel
The Sinfonieorchester Basel is a Swiss orchestra based in Basel. The orchestra performs symphony concerts at the Musiksaal, Basel. The orchestra also serves as the opera orchestra and ballet orchestra for the Theater Basel...
, effective with the 2009-2010 season, for an initial contract of five years.