Live RSNO Plays Grieg Thu 3 October

Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is the Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, following six seasons as Principal Guest Conductor. The 2023:24 season also sees Thomas start his tenure as Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra. Between 2012 and 2018, he served as Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW), after stepping down as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

He has appeared with many notable orchestras in leading European centres, such as Berlin (including Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin), Munich (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk), Leipzig (Gewandhausorchester), Paris (Orchestre National de France), London (London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra), Amsterdam and Rotterdam (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic) and is a familiar figure in Scandinavia, with such orchestras as Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic. North American appearances to date have included the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St Louis, Toronto, Atlanta, Montreal, Vancouver, Houston and Seattle. He has made highly successful tours to China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The 2023:24 season marks the beginning of Thomas’ tenure as Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra. With the RSNO this season, in addition to their subscription series, Thomas will lead the orchestra’s residency at the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg, joined by Lise de la Salle, as well as an extensive European tour with Ray Chen. This season sees Thomas make his return to the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as his debut with the New York Philharmonic, where he will perform the US premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Keyframes for a Hippogriff. Thomas also makes regular guest appearances throughout Scandinavia this season, debuting with Iceland Symphony and the Bergen International Festival, where he leads a full staging of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt to Grieg’s complete incidental music. Return visits include Bergen Philharmonic, a joint collaboration with Aalborg and Aarhus Symfoniorkesters, and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, celebrating his receipt of the Carl Nielsen and Anne-Marie Carl Nielsen’s Foundation award for his outstanding contribution to Danish musical life.

As part of the 2015 anniversary celebrations of both Sibelius and Nielsen, he conducted a wide variety of their works with many leading orchestras. A passionate supporter of the music of Carl Nielsen, his performances with the Swedish Radio Symphony of his Symphony No. 5 was praised as “equal of the great pioneers of Nielsen interpretation… It’s hard to imagine a finer performance of this remarkable symphony.” (Dagens Nyheter); and in 2019 participated in a special concert to celebrate Nielsen’s works with the Royal Danish Academy of Music Copenhagen.

Following his acclaimed debut for Royal Danish Opera (Kafka’s Trial), he has since returned regularly to conduct a broad repertoire, including Die Walküre, which won the 2022 Reumert Award for Best Opera Production, Elektra, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La bohème, Cunning Little Vixen, Il viaggio a Reims; and has also made short concert tours with the Royal Danish Orchestra. He has also enjoyed successful collaborations with Norwegian Opera and Royal Swedish Opera. His Stockholm productions of Tosca and Turandot (both with Nina Stemme) led to his Bayerische Staatsoper debut, conducting main season and Opera Festival performances of Turandot with her and he most recently returned to for the Opera’s Akademiekonzert series. He made his Deutsche Oper Berlin debut with the World premiere of Scartazzini’s Edward II and has since returned for Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet.

His discography covers a broad range of contemporary and mainstream repertoire, including Poul Ruders (Arhus Symphony, Norwegian Radio, Royal Danish Opera (Kafka’s Trial) for Da Capo and Bridge Records); Sibelius symphonies and tone poems with BBC NOW and Prokofiev and Richard Strauss with RSNO for Linn Records; Lutoslawski and Dutilleux concertos with ‘cellist Johannes Moser and Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Pentatone); and Vilde Frang’s celebrated debut recording (WDR Koln for EMI).

In January 2022, Thomas was decorated with a prestigious Royal Order of Chivalry – the Order of Dannebrog (Ridder af Dannebrogordenen) by Her Majesty Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark.

When did you join the RSNO?
I joined the RSNO in July 2014.

Where are you from?
I was born in Leeds, England but was brought up in Luton, Bedfordshire.

Where did you study?
I read Maths and Music at the University of Birmingham and followed that with postgraduate studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music in London and privately in Paris and Rotterdam.

What do you enjoy most about being in the RSNO?
I feel very fortunate to be able to play the world’s most beautiful music with such great musicians and colleagues on a day to day basis – it is a real privilege.

Tell us your favourite RSNO story/memory so far.
I certainly remember after a rehearsal of a Mozart Piano Concerto in Henry Wood Hall being told by Principal Flute Katherine Bryan that I had to go down to the conductor’s room – I was somewhat relieved to find that rather than having done something really wrong I was being offered the job! It then struck me that I had to work out how best to tell my wife who was eight months pregnant and nesting that we needed to talk about moving!

I would also say that our recent tour to California was a highlight with fantastic concerts, beautiful sunshine and the opportunity to go wine tasting at some of the top vineyards in Napa Valley!

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not playing with the Orchestra?
At the moment it’s a mixture of running, swimming, wine tasting and spending as much time as I can with my beautiful family. Watching my children aged five and three discovering the world around them is the most extraordinary thing…

I also very much enjoy working with my chamber ensemble – Ensemble 360, which is based at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. It is great to experience fantastic chamber music in such intimate surroundings where the audience are often only a few feet away!

I gained my passion for exploring the world of wine through my Father-in-Law. For many years I have travelled to the various growing regions of the world to talk to the growers and of course sample the wines!

Making great wine is “in itself” an art form and I am very interested in the similarities in which we describe both music and wine such as texture, clarity, richness, balance, perfume etc. I’m sure there must be funding available for further research into this???!!! 😉

Do you have any hidden talents?
Possibly, although not sure I have found them yet – although I am on a single-minded mission to keep the high art of punning alive and kicking… much to the annoyance of the wind section 🙂

If you could have dinner with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be, and why?

There is nothing better, for me, than having dinner with close family or friends.

That said, although they say one should never meet their heroes – I would be quite tempted to invite the late comedian/writer Ronnie Barker, who I think was not only a complete genius but also someone who wore his celebrity lightly and humbly. His comedy was not the personal or political rant that is so prevalent today but comedy for comedy’s sake and could quite possibly be very entertaining at dinner!

You’re stranded on a desert island. You’re allowed 3 CDs and 1 book. What would they be, and why?

Oh that is totally impossible – there are too many works that would be too sorely missed! However it would be very difficult to not be able to listen to:
J.S Bach St Matthew’s Passion because it has so many beautiful moments – many including the oboe, oboe di caccia and oboe d’amore.
Beethoven String Quartet Op.130 probably the most personal of utterances from the most human of composers…
How can I chose between Schumann’s Dictherliebe and Schubert’s Impromptus? I am currently utterly in love with both of them.

I have realised that there’s not much cheery music in that lot – so I would have to balance this out by leaving Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina out and replacing it with another book that shares insight into the human condition but in a somewhat lighter way… Winnie the Pooh by A.A Milne which of course means I have the wonderful illustrations by E.H Shepard too!