_610_300_c1_center_center_0_-0_1.jpeg)
Biography 456 words
Download biography as pdf Download biography as word doc
Thomas Dausgaard regularly appears as guest conductor with the leading orchestras throughout Europe, North America and the Far East and in the coming seasons he makes his debut with both the London Symphony Orchestra and Munich Philharmonic.
As Chief Conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra – of which he is now Honorary Conductor - Thomas Dausgaard is attributed with creating distinct profiles for both ensembles through his wide-ranging programming, extensive touring and recording. Through his commitment to education and alternative concert formats, he developed a programme for school children who now regularly collaborate with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. He also instigated the Metro Concerts with the DNSO – a highly successful after-work series of mini-concerts – and oversaw the 2009 opening of the landmark new concert hall in Copenhagen designed by Jean Nouvel.
Dausgaard’s repertoire ranges from Bach to the music of today. Recently he has premiered works by Penderecki, Dean, Volans, Vine and Nørgård and he has a natural affinity with the music of Sibelius and Nielsen - of whom his piano teacher was a student. With major anniversaries for both Sibelius and Nielsen upcoming
read more...
Thomas Dausgaard regularly appears as guest conductor with the leading orchestras throughout Europe, North America and the Far East and in the coming seasons he makes his debut with both the London Symphony Orchestra and Munich Philharmonic.
As Chief Conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra – of which he is now Honorary Conductor - Thomas Dausgaard is attributed with creating distinct profiles for both ensembles through his wide-ranging programming, extensive touring and recording. Through his commitment to education and alternative concert formats, he developed a programme for school children who now regularly collaborate with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. He also instigated the Metro Concerts with the DNSO – a highly successful after-work series of mini-concerts – and oversaw the 2009 opening of the landmark new concert hall in Copenhagen designed by Jean Nouvel.
Dausgaard’s repertoire ranges from Bach to the music of today. Recently he has premiered works by Penderecki, Dean, Volans, Vine and Nørgård and he has a natural affinity with the music of Sibelius and Nielsen - of whom his piano teacher was a student. With major anniversaries for both Sibelius and Nielsen upcoming in 2015, Dausgaard will devote much of that year to both composers through extensive symphony cycle performances. Choral works also have a special place in Dausgaard’s repertoire as do the symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler for which he has been much praised for his sense of line.
With over 50 CDs to his name – many of which have received international awards - his complete Beethoven and Schumann symphony cycles with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Rued Langgaard cycle with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra have been particularly singled out for praise. Most recently a DVD with the DNSO featuring symphonies by Brahms, Dvorak, Sibelius and Nielsen was released by Universal, and his Opening Doors series with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra on BIS continues with works by Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Wagner, taking the possibilities for chamber orchestra across further musical borders.
The role music can play in the lives of children and young people is important to Dausgaard who collaborates with several youth orchestras in North and South America, Europe and Australia. He has given masterclasses at the Beijing Conservatory and in Sweden with the SCO and presided over the Malko Competition for young conductors.
Thomas Dausgaard has been awarded the Cross of Chivalry by the Queen of Denmark and elected to the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden. An inquisitive mind, he has visited former head hunting tribes in Borneo, volunteered as a farmer in China, studied with a ceramicist in Japan, and taken classes in aboriginal art in Australia with his family.
Photos
Reviews
""Fired up by its kinetic Danish conductor, Thomas Dausgaard, this versatile ensemble performed the musical selections in the first half without breaks, drawing a dramatic arc that proved emotionally satisfying and intellectually stimulating." | On Swedish Chamber Orchestra USA Tour April 2013"
New York Times
"...Dausgaard drew a spectrum of colors from the orchestra, including a grainy French sound in the Ravel, an alluring lightness in Wagner and broody suppressed passion in Sibelius. In Brahms’s Symphony No. 1, he used that color palette to great effect, particularly in the final movement, where multiple musical ideas tussle for the upper hand before uniting for a triumphant conclusion. "
New York Times
"The Toronto Symphony Orchestra chose to put its fate into the hands of Gustav Mahler and Thomas Dausgaard on Wednesday night with spectacular results. "
The Toronto Star
"Dausgaard's forces weaved through with authority and luminous beauty. I wouldn't have missed it for the world."
The Times
"[Thomas Dausgaard] has a wonderful sense of programming, combining the familiar and unfamiliar in thoughtful ways with a mind to always give us a sense of adventure."
Concerto Net
"... it was clear that Dausgaard was going to yet again delight the audience with his attention to detail and the excellent playing he is able to draw from this orchestra."
Concerto Net
"In Antonin Dvorák's 6th Symphony Dausgaard went on to conduct a clearly structured orchestral landscape. This was particularly impressively achieved in the Adagio, because Dausgaard took the time for himself and the musicians to spin out the melodic lines and integrate the phrases meaningfully . Wonderful, so succulent ..."
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Harald Eggebrecht
"Dausgaard’s is one of the more involving and compelling Tchaikovsky Pathétiques in recent years. "
Classics Today
"There is so much musicality in the shaping of the musical detail as well as of the music as a whole, combined with lots of characteristic Dausgaardian drama..." "
Klassik Magazine
"The First Piano Concerto that followed the Kurtág is the very manifestation of the classical Beethoven; a perfect synthesis of clarity, beauty, and cogency....Dausgaard... [was] Delicate and chamber-like, sensitive yet with philharmonic brawn, this was enchanting from the first notes."
Ion Arts
"…as stunning a concert as I've heard in recent years: a superb Wagner-Nielsen-Beethoven program, led by Denmark's Thomas Dausgaard in his long-anticipated SPCO debut. Dausgaard dances knowingly with SPCO-sized ensembles, from which he conjures sonorities of both chamber-music-like delicacy and symphonic weight."
Star Tribune
"Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto was finely controlled and shaped by Dausgaard…"
The Guardian
"...the reasons for Dausgaard's critical acclaim are obvious."
Bachtrack.com
"Leading us all, musicians and audience, in his clear vision, Thomas Dausgaard offered Bruckner [in his Symphony No.4] the power, invincible force and dazzling beauty that he misses in many outdated versions."
Classique News
"…Thomas Dausgaard…gave [Bruckner’s Symphony No.7] a masterly interpretation with myriad colors and shadings that gave the huge work life and energy, even lightness at times. The orchestra responded to his insightful direction with excellent playing."
Seattle Times
"Dausgaard is a renowned Nielsen interpreter and it showed in his intricate grasp of the [Fifth] symphony's structural complexity…a superbly executed performance."
The Australian
"Thomas Dausgaard is an extremely charismatic conductor, from whom radiates an aura of energy, and the musicians instinctively know what colours he wants from them."
Neue Press
"...an almost supernaturally inspired rendition of [Verdi's] massive Requiem..."
Chron.com (Houston Chronicle)
"Dausgaard led the orchestra to a technically perfect performance...A great evening..."
Aachener Zeitung
"The concert was wonderful proof that the most amazing, most thrilling performances often occur away from the limelight..."
Die Presse
"...Dausgaard crafted impressive musical sculptures at once monumental and intimately personal."
The Toronto Star
Discography
-
Nørgård: Symphonies Nos.3 & 7 2009
-
Langgaard: The Symphonies 2009
-
Schumann: Symphonies Nos.3 & 4 2008
-
For full discography see downloads