Live Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Fri 29 – Sat 30 November

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.

Ethan was born in 2004 and diagnosed completely blind since birth. As a toddler, he would explore the piano for hours imitating his first inspiration, Rowlf – the piano-playing dog from the Muppet Show. His other inspiration, the DVD “Horowitz in Vienna”, he played relentlessly. His formal piano lessons began at age four with his mother, but he now studies with Fali Pavri at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has been composing since early childhood and loves to tell imaginative stories in his compositions.

Ethan’s first major concert was at a Music in Lanark event where he also debuted his first major composition work, “Wallace at Lanark”, illustrating the life of Scottish hero William Wallace. He was also the focus of a BBC radio documentary called ‘Batman and Ethan’, about the freedom a blind child can experience through working with the talented teacher of the blind, Daniel Kish.

In 2016, Ethan was awarded his first major international award at the Vatican. He received the Premio Asoluto prize at the 15th International ‘Giuseppe Sciacca’ awards in Rome, for his ability to create music “full of colours” as an inspiration to all. In 2017, Ethan won the 7th James Waterhouse Loretto Piano Competition “Advanced” class. As part of that prize, he performed at Steinway Hall in London. Ethan has twice participated in the wonderful Festival of Chopin in Mazovia, Poland. He won the 3rd and then the 4th categories. He performed at Chopin’s house and later for the Warsaw Music Society. He was also a finalist in the EPTA Belgium International Piano Competition in 2018.

In 2019, Ethan received his ATCL (Associate of Trinity College London) with a mark of 92/100 at the age of 14. During this year, Ethan also won the Scottish International Youth Piano Competition as part of the Moray Prize at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Over covid lockdown 2020, every Saturday at 8pm Ethan showcased a short 15-minute concert on his YouTube channel. He recorded 44 concerts over the year.

In 2022, after a year of competing, Ethan won the 2022 BBC Young Musician Keyboard Category Final with the judges saying, “Ethan found orchestral colours on the piano like no-one else can.” He was also featured on The List, Top 100 People to Watch in 2022.

In the summer of 2023 Ethan was awarded a place at the Verbier Academy as a piano soloist.

Ethan’s first CD, ‘Mysterious Pathways Volume One’ was featured on Classic FM and on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio documentary featuring his collaboration with the Canadian artist Tony Luciani who painted the cover image. His second album, ‘Mysterious Improvisations 2020’, is a collection of one-shot, single-take classical improvisations.

Ethan has made three TV appearances to date. The first was on BBC’s The One Show, and the second in May 2018 on the ITV show Little Big Shots where he enjoyed chatting to Dawn French and performing both on his own and as a duet with young Romanian singer and harpist Daria. His third appearance was on the BBC Young Musician 2022 competition where he won the category final (keyboard) and performed the Chopin Piano Concerto No.1. The final was won by percussionist Jordan Ashman.

Ethan is busy studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and playing around the UK in both solo and concerto work including concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Mark Wigglesworth, Manchester Camerata Orchestra as a guest artist, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.