Donald Runnicles
Conductor Donald Runnicles has been equally active in opera and concert music in Europe and the U.S. He has amassed a large recording catalog with the various major ensembles he has led.
Runnicles was born on November 16, 1954, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was a furniture supply company director who also played the organ and directed a choir. Runnicles attended George Heriot's School in Edinburgh and then moved to George Watson's College, which offered music courses. He studied music at the University of Edinburgh and St. John's College, Cambridge, going on for further studies at the London Opera Centre. He worked as a vocal coach in Mannheim, Germany, and became Generalmusikdirector of the city of Freiburg, Germany, in 1989. Runnicles soaked up the German operatic tradition, and he worked mostly as an opera conductor for the first years of his career. In 1990, he conducted Wagner's Ring Cycle with the San Francisco Opera, and two years later, he was appointed the company's music director. He remained in that post through 2009 and has remained active as a guest conductor. Runnicles made his recording debut in 1994 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, leading Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel; that album appeared on the Teldec label, and Runnicles was associated with that label for many years.
After the turn of the century, Runnicles was active increasingly often as a conductor of instrumental music. From 2001 to 2007, he was the principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York. From 2009 to 2016, Runnicles served as the chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He became the principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2001, continuing to hold that position as of the early 2020s through the tenures of several music directors. Runnicles became the music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Colorado in 2005, and he continued to hold that position as of the early 2020s as well. In 2007, Runnicles was appointed Generalmusikdirektor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, assuming the podium in 2009; his contract there has been extended through 2027. Runnicles has a large recording catalog, much of it made with the above-named groups. In addition to Telarc, he has recorded for major labels such as Decca, Hyperion, and Sony Classical. He moved to Reference Recordings in 2023, leading the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in support of pianist Garrick Ohlsson in the complete piano concertos of Beethoven.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
18 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Richard Wagner : Airs d'opéras - Wesendonck Lieder
Jonas Kaufmann, Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Donald Runnicles
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 22 aug. 2006
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Orff: Carmina Burana
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 23 okt. 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Donald Runnicles
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 2 dec. 2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Aribert Reimann : L'invisible (Live)
Opera - Released by Oehms Classics on 11 mei 2018
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Górecki: Symphony No. 3, Op. 36 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"
Christine Brewer, Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 24 mrt. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Humperdinck : Hänsel und Gretel
Opera - Released by Warner Classics International on 1 okt. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bellini : I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Opera - Released by Warner Classics International on 1 jun. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Wagner : Airs d'opéras - Wesendonck Lieder
Jonas Kaufmann, Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Donald Runnicles
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 22 aug. 2006
Gramophone Editor's Choice16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britannia
Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 23 okt. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Four Last Songs & Death and Transfiguration - Wagner: Prelude & Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Christine Brewer
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 15 aug. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
James MacMillan: Violin Concerto & Symphony No. 4
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Donald Runnicles, Vadim Repin
Klassiek - Released by Onyx Classics on 21 okt. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphony At The Opera - Great Opera Interludes
Klassiek - Released by Arabesque Recordings on 6 mei 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Requiem in D Minor, K. 626 (Robert D. Levin Edition)
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 23 aug. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 "Choral"
Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Mary Dunleavy, Elizabeth Bishop, Stephen Gould, Alastair Miles
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 sep. 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 39 & 41 (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Symfonische muziek - Released by St. Luke's Collection on 1 jan. 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weihnachten mit "Hänsel und Gretel"
Donald Runnicles, Jennifer Larmore, Ruth Ziesak, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Klassiek - Released by Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group on 18 aug. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Donald Runnicles
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 2 dec. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Great Strauss Scenes
Christine Brewer, Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Christine Brewer, Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Telarc on 1 jan. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo