Dennis Russell Davies
conductor
Dennis Russell Davies is one of the most innovative and adventurous conductors/programmers in the classical music world. He is noted for exciting, well-structured concerts and for his close working relationships with such varied composers as Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, John Cage, Philip Glass, and Manfred Trojahn.
After his appointments as music director and principal conductor in the United States, he ventured to Europe where he built a great career as music director in renowned houses. Since 2018 Dennis Russell Davies has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Brno Philharmonic, with whom he has made several recordings and performed in Germany, Austria and at the Prague Spring Festival. In 2020 he began his tenure as Principal Conductor of the mdr Sinfonieorchester Leipzig. He also makes appearances in the US and Europe.
Davies, born in Ohio in 1944, studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School in New York. From 1997 to 2012 he was Professor of Conducting at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg; since September 2020 he has been Visiting Professor at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. Since 2009, Dennis Russell Davies has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been awarded the German "Bundesverdienstkreuz", the Austrian "Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst", and the title of "Commandeur des Arts et Lettres" by the French government.