Czech Philharmonic • Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

British conductor Daniel Harding was the music and artistic director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra until 2025, where he worked for 18 years. In 2024, he took over as music director of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia orchestra and choir, and in the same year he also became head of the Youth Music Culture The Greater Bay Area (YMCG) program, an international orchestral academy and festival in the Greater Bay Area of southern China that brings together young musicians from around the world. He was Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris from 2016–2019 and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2007–2017. He is honoured with the lifetime title of Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for over 20 years. In addition to his concert engagements, he is also a frequent guest at prestigious opera houses such as La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Berlin and Vienna State Operas. 

He made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic in 2023, conducting Schumann’s oratorio Paradise and the Peri. In the 2026/2027 season, he will collaborate with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

He has received numerous awards for his recordings. His Mahler and Orff albums with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, have received widespread critical acclaim. For Virgin/EMI he has recorded Mahler’s and Brahms’ symphonies; Billy Budd with London Symphony Orchestra (a winner of a Grammy Award for best opera recording); Don Giovanni and The Turn of the Screw with Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Choc de lʼAnnée 2002, the Grand Prix de lʼAcadémie Charles Cros and a Gramophone award); works by Lutosławski and Britten (Choc de LʼAnnée 1998). His most recent recordings include a live performance of a Violin concerto by contemporary British composer Helen Grime with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Puccini’s Tosca with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia orchestra, and Violin concertos by S. Barber and J. Sibelius with soloist Renaud Capuçon.

Daniel Harding was born in Oxford and made his mark as a conductor at a very young age. He had the opportunity to assist Simon Rattle with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Claudio Abbado with the Berlin Philharmonic, with whom he made his debut at the age of 21. In 1996, he also became the youngest conductor ever to conduct a concert at the BBC Proms. He is also a recipient of the Order of Arts and Letters, which he received from the French government in 2002, and the Order of the British Empire (2021). In addition to his numerous musical commitments, he is also a professional pilot for Air France.