Dennis Russell Davies

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Dennis Russell Davies (born 16 April 1944, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.) is an American conductor and pianist. He 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 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 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 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 with often innovative and unusual staging productions. 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-Orchester Linz and Linz Opera since 2002, and his current contract in Linz is through 2014.^[1]

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.

In March 2008, Davies was named the next music director of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, effective with the 2009-2010 season, for an initial contract of 5 years.^[1]

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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 Soustrot
Preceded by no predecessor	Music Director, American Composers Orchestra 1977–2002	Succeeded by Steven Sloane
Preceded by Martin Sieghart	Principal Conductor, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra 1995–2006	Succeeded by Michael Hofstetter
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