Douglas Boyd

Currently the Artistic Director of Garsington Opera Douglas Boyd has also held the positions of Music Director of L’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Chief Conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, Music Director of Manchester Camerata, Principal Guest Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Partner of St Paul Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of City of London Sinfonia. In 2020 he received the highly prestigious Grand Vermeil Médaille de la Ville de Paris for services to music, in recognition of his work as Music Director of L’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris.

Originally an oboist and one of the founding members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Douglas’s formative musical training was under musicians such as Abbado and Harnoncourt, who remain a significant influence on his style and approach to this day.

In the UK Douglas Boyd has conducted all the BBC Orchestras, the Philharmonia, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia. On the continent he has worked with, amongst others, the Bergen Philharmonic, Basel Sinfonieorchester, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, as well as Munich Chamber Orchestra and Kammerakademie Potsdam.

Further afield he has conducted the Nagoya Symphony Orchestra in Japan, Hong Kong Philharmonic and with many of the symphony orchestras in Australia including a complete cycle of Beethoven Symphonies with the Melbourne Symphony as well as the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with Paul Lewis. He returns to the Australia in the 2022/23 season to conduct the complete Beethoven Symphonies with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Douglas appears regularly in North America where he has worked with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Pacific, Sacramento, Seattle, Utah and Virginia Symphony Orchestras. In Canada he has appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and National Arts Orchestra in Ottawa.

On the concert platform he enjoys a close working relationship with eminent soloists including Jonathan Biss, Steven Isserlis, Anthony Marwood, Viktoria Mulova, Fazil Say, András Schiff, Mark Padmore, Emmanuel Pahud and Alissa Weilerstein.

Operatic engagements have included Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne Opera on Tour, Salieri’s La Grotto di Tronfonio for Zürich Opera Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito with Opera North and with the Potsdam Winteroper conducting Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. Productions at Garsington Opera have included Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan Tutte, Eugene Onegin, Capriccio, Silver Birch (Roxanna Panufnik, world premiere), Il barbiere di Siviglia as well as concert performances of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Haydn’s The Creation with Ballet Rambert and concert performances of Fidelio. In 2022 he conducted the world premiere of the new community opera, Dahlia, by Roxanna Panufnik and a new production of Rusalka at Garsington. The production of Rusalka also appeared as part of the 2022 Edinburgh International Festival. Future titles with Garsington include A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

During his tenure as Artistic Director of Garsington Opera he has secured the Philharmonia Orchestra and English Concert as the resident orchestras, forged partnerships with Santa Fe Opera and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and is widely recognised for his leadership in shaping the company into a world-class, internationally renowned festival, reflected in their nomination in the 2019 international opera awards.

Douglas Boyd’s recording of the Bach Concerti for DG marked his recording debut as director/soloist and he has since gone on to build an extensive conducting discography. His recordings with Manchester Camerata of the complete Beethoven Symphonies and Mahler Symphony No 4 (on Avie) and Das Lied von der Erde have received universal critical acclaim. He has also recorded Schubert Symphonies with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra on their own label as well as several recordings with Musikkollegium Winterthur. His recordings with L’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris include ‘Intuition’ with Gautier Capuçon for the Erato label, and a disc of Haydn Symphonies which was released in 2021.

Recent and future highlights include concerts with the Aalborg Symfoniorkester, Auckland Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Philharmonic and National Orchesta of Wales Orchestras, Colorado Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, North Carolina Symphony, New World Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonia do Porto, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Gävle Symfoniorkester, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Utah Symphony, Sacramento Symphony and L’Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine.