Thomas Dausgaard

He studied piano and composition from an early age with a former student of Carl Nielsen, and later also cello, percussion, and conducting. He complemented this with playing jazz on the piano with his father and later joining a rock band on guitar. After completing his conducting studies with Prof. Arne Hammelboe at the Royal Danish Academy of Music he went to Norman Del Mar’s conducting class at Royal College of Music, London. Following master classes with Franco Ferrara and Leonard Bernstein, he was appointed Assistant Conductor with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which launched his international career.

As a guest conductor Dausgaard has worked extensively with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna Symphony and Bavarian Radio Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester and Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Houston Symphony and Bergen Philharmonic with whom he is recording Bruckner symphonies for BIS. He has also appeared with the New York, Los Angeles, Munich and St Petersburg Philharmonics, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, London Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and regularly at prestigious festivals worldwide, notably the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International, Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia and George Enescu Festivals, and Tanglewood. He has toured extensively in Europe and the US with “his” orchestras, as well as a week-long residency in Tokyo 2019, presenting the BBC Proms in Japan for the first time.

Dausgaard has recently been appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and Chorus as well as Honorary Guest Conductor of the Copenhagen Philharmonic, following his successful tenure as Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (2016-2022). He also holds honorary titles with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Chief Conductor 1997-2019) and with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Principal Guest Conductor 2001-2004, Chief Conductor 2004–2011).

Since realising his vision of recording Beethoven’s Complete Orchestral Music–for the first time with one partnership (Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra)–, Dausgaard’s over 100 CD recordings have consistently been praised and Grammy nominated, including several complete symphonic cycles–Schumann, Schubert and Brahms (SCO), Langgaard (DNSO), as well as Sibelius Kullervo and Bartok Orchestral works(BBC SSO), Mahler 10, Nielsen symphonies and Strauss tone poems (Seattle SO), as well as Bruckner symphonies (Bergen Phil).