Bernard Haitink

With an international conducting career that has spanned more than five decades, Amsterdam-born Bernard Haitink is one of today’s most celebrated conductors.

Principal Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 2006, he was for more than 25 years at the helm of the Royal Concertgebouw as its music director. In addition, Mr Haitink has previously held posts as music director of the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the London Philharmonic. He is Conductor Laureate of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has made frequent guest appearances with most of the world’s leading orchestras.

Mr. Haitink began the 2008-9 season with a European tour with the Chicago Symphony, and the continuation of a cycle of Beethoven symphonies, concertos and overtures with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at the Lucerne Festival; he completes the cycle at the Lucerne Easter Festival 2009. He conducted a new production of “Fidelio” at the Zürich Opera, and in February 2009 led the Chicago Symphony on a tour of Japan, Hong Kong and China. Other highlights of the season include concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra, performances in Chicago and Carnegie Hall, New York with the Chicago Symphony, and concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and at The Barbican Centre, London to mark his 80th birthday in March 2009.

Mr Haitink has recorded widely for Phillips, Decca and EMI with the Concertgebouw, 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. Mr Haitink’s recording of Janacek’s “Jenufa” with the Royal Opera received a Grammy Award for best opera recording in 2004. His most recent recordings are the complete Brahms and Beethoven symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra on the LSO Live label, and Mahler’s Symphonies no.3 and 6, Bruckner’s Symphony no.7 and Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 4 with the Chicago Symphony for their new “Resound” label. The Shostakovich 4 recording was recently 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.

Photo: Clive Barda