Kent Nagano

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Kent Nagano
Kent Nagano
This article is about the orchestral conductor. For the city in Japan, please see Nagano.

Kent Nagano (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Nagano was born in Berkeley, California, while his parents were in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. He grew up in Morro Bay. He studied sociology and music at the University of California, Santa Cruz. After graduation he moved to San Francisco State University to study music. While there, he took composition courses from Grosvenor Cooper and Roger Nixon. helloooo

His first conducting job was with the Opera Company of Boston, where he was assistant conductor to Sarah Caldwell. In 1978, he became the conductor of the Berkeley Symphony, his first music directorship. In January 2007, it was announced that he will step down from this position in 2009.[1] During his tenure in Berkeley, Nagano became a champion of the music of Olivier Messiaen and initiated a correspondence with him.[2]

In 1982, Nagano conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in several of Frank Zappa's completely orchestral compositions for the first time. Nagano recorded several of Zappa's pieces on the issue London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 1, where Zappa had personally chosen Nagano to conduct the orchestra.

In 1985 he was awarded the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award.

Nagano also was music director of the Opéra de Lyon from 1988-1998. He served as principal conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester from 1992-1999. During his tenure, Nagano received criticism for his expensive and ambitious programming, as well as his conducting fees.[3] However, poor financial management at the orchestra separately contributed to the fiscal troubles of the orchestra.[4] His contract was not renewed after 1999.

Nagano became principal conductor and artistic director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 2000, and served in this position until 2006. He made a number of recordings with the orchestra, including selections of Ludwig van Beethoven, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Bruckner, Alexander von Zemlinsky, and Gustav Mahler.

Nagano became principal conductor at Los Angeles Opera (LA Opera) starting from the 2001-2002 season. In May 2003, Nagano was named the LA Opera's first ever Music Director, and retained this position through 2006. Olivier Messiaen chose Nagano to premiere his opera Saint François d'Assise in 1983. He has been a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, where he premiered Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de loin in 2000. He also conducted the world premiere of John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer in Brussels.

Nagano became the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in 2006 and of the Bavarian State Opera in 2006. His contract with the Bavarian State Opera does not allow him to be the music director of another opera company.[5] He is also one of the Russian National Orchestra's Conductor Collegium.[6]

Nagano is married to the pianist Mari Kodama, and they have one daughter.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Joshua Kosman. "Nagano showed that rule breaking can make a careers", San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Jan 2007. Retrieved on 2007-06-16. 
  2. ^ Allan Kozinn. "Nagano With a Little Bit of Luck, a Conducting Career Flourishes", New York Times, 1 November 1987. Retrieved on 2007-10-30. 
  3. ^ John Ezard. "Nagano passes on Halle baton", The Guardian, 25 May 1999. Retrieved on 2007-06-16. 
  4. ^ Stephen Moss. "Say Hallé, wave goodbye", The Guardian, 28 May 1999. Retrieved on 2007-06-16. 
  5. ^ Daniel J. Wakin. "National Briefing, West: California: Short Stay For A Music Director", New York Times, 17 Sep 2004. Retrieved on 2007-06-16. 
  6. ^ Vadim Prokhorov. "Batons at dawn", The Guardian, 18 March 2004. Retrieved on 2007-06-16. 

[edit] External links

Preceded by
John Eliot Gardiner		 Music Director, Opéra National de Lyon
1988-1998		 Succeeded by
Louis Langrée
Preceded by
Vladimir Ashkenazy		 Principal Conductor, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
2000-2006		 Succeeded by
Ingo Metzmacher
Preceded by
no predecessor		 Principal Conductor and Music Director, Los Angeles Opera
2001-2006		 Succeeded by
James Conlon
v • d • e
Hallé Principal Conductors

Charles Hallé (1858) · Frederic Cowen (1895) · Hans Richter (1899) · Michael Balling (1912) · Thomas Beecham (1915) · Hamilton Harty (1920) · Malcolm Sargent (1939) · John Barbirolli (1943) · James Loughran (1972) · Stanisław Skrowaczewski (1983) · Kent Nagano (1992) · Mark Elder (2000)
v • d • e
Bayerische Staatsoper Directors

Karl von Perfall (1867) • Ernst von Possart (1895) • Clemens von Franckenstein (1912) • Clemens Krauss (1937) • Georg Hartmann (1947) • Rudolf Hartmann (1952) • Günther Rennert (1967) • August Everding (1977) • Wolfgang Sawallisch (1983) • Peter Jonas (1993) • Kent Nagano (2006)
v • d • e
Bayerisches Staatsorchester General Music Directors

Franz Lachner (1836) · Hans von Bülow (1867) · Franz Wüllner (1870) · Hermann Levi (1872) · Richard Strauss (1894) · Hermann Zumpe (1901) · Felix Mottl (1904) · Bruno Walter (1913) · Hans Knappertsbusch (1922) · Clemens Krauss (1937) · Hans Knappertsbusch (1945) · Georg Solti (1946) · Rudolf Kempe (1952) · Ferenc Fricsay (1956) · Joseph Keilberth (1959) · Wolfgang Sawallisch (1971) · Peter Schneider (1992) · Zubin Mehta (1998) · Kent Nagano (2006)
v • d • e
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Music Directors

Wilfrid Pelletier (1935) · Désiré Defauw (1941) · Otto Klemperer (1950) · Igor Markevitch (1957) · Zubin Mehta (1961) · Franz-Paul Decker (1967) · Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (1975) · Charles Dutoit (1977) · Kent Nagano (2006)