Bernard Haitink

With an international conducting career that has spanned more than five and a half decades, Amsterdam-born Bernard Haitink is one of today’s most celebrated conductors.Mr. Haitink was for 27 years Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; he is now their Conductor Laureate. In addition, Mr Haitink has previously held posts as Music Director of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Dresden Staatskapelle, and Principal Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic.

He is Conductor Emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has made frequent guest appearances with most of the world’s leading orchestras.Mr Haitink will start the 2011-12 season in America, leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and returning to the New York Philharmonic for the first time in over 30 years. February 2012 will see the conclusion of a Beethoven Cycle with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and the Salle Pleyel, Paris. Other highlights of 2011-12 include the Christmas Day concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and engagements with the Symphony Orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, Tonhalle and London Symphony Orchestras, as well as a three week residency with the Boston Symphony.Mr Haitink has recorded widely for Phillips, Decca and EMI with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His discography also includes many opera recordings with the Royal Opera, Glyndebourne, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and Dresden Staatskapelle. Most recently he has recorded extensively with the London Symphony Orchestra for “LSO Live”, including the complete Brahms and Beethoven symphonies, and with the Chicago Symphony on their “Resound” label.

Mr Haitink’s recording of Janacek’s “Jenufa” with the Royal Opera received a Grammy Award for best opera recording in 2004, and his Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 recording with the Chicago Symphony was awarded a Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance of 2008. Mr Haitink has received many international awards in recognition of his services to music, including both an honorary Knighthood and the Companion of Honour in the United Kingdom, and the House Order of Orange-Nassau in the Netherlands. He was named Musical America’s “Musician of the Year” for 2007.