Dennis Russell Davies

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Dennis Russell Davies (born 16 April 1944, Toledo, Ohio, USA) is an American conductor and pianist. He was born in Toledo, Ohio and studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School of Music where he received his doctorate. He is a noted champion of living composers and modern music including Philip Glass, Hans Werner Henze, William Bolcom, Lou Harrison, John Cage, Giya Kancheli, Arvo Pärt, Virgil Thompson, and Aaron Copland. He has commissioned and premiered and recorded numerous pieces by living composers along with the standard classical pieces. Of note are the recordings of Copland's Appalachian Spring with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 1976 (date?) for which he won a Grammy Award; Arvo Pärt Fratres and Misere; and many of Phillip Glass' operas and symphonies including his 5th symphony which is dedictated 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. 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 Phillip Glass operas along with many standard operas with often innovative and unusual staging productions. He has worked with many directors including Robert Altman (they did Strauss's Salome in Hamburg). He has also held permanent posts with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn (1987-1995), the Vienna Radio Orchestra, and the Bruckner Symphony in Linz.

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.

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Preceded by Leopold Sipe	Music Director, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra 1972–1980	Succeeded by Pinchas Zukerman
Preceded by Silvio Varviso	Music Director, Baden-Württemberg National Theater 1980–1987	Succeeded by Luis Garcia Navarro
Preceded by Gustav Kuhn	Music Director, Beethovenhalle Orchestra 1987–1996	Succeeded by Marc Soustrout
Preceded by no predecessor	Music Director, American Composers Orchestra 1977–2002	Succeeded by Steven Sloane
Preceded by Martin Sieghart	Principal Conductor, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra 1995–	Succeeded by incumbent
Preceded by Pinchas Steinberg	Principal Conductor, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra 1996–2002	Succeeded by Bertrand de Billy
Preceded by Martin Sieghart	Music Director, Bruckner Orchestra Linz 2002–	Succeeded by incumbent