
Sir Andrew Davis has served as music director and principal conductor of Lyric Opera
of Chicago since 2000. He is the conductor laureate of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
(having previously served as principal conductor) and of the BBC Symphony Orchestra
(having served as its chief conductor), and is the former music director of the
Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Born in 1944 in Hertfordshire, England, Sir Andrew
studied at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar before taking up
the baton. His diverse repertoire ranges from the Baroque to contemporary, and his
conducting credits span the symphonic, operatic, and choral worlds. He is a great
proponent of 20th-century works including those of Janaček, Messiaen, Pierre Boulez,
Elgar, Michael Tippett, and Britten.
In the 2009–10 season Sir Andrew conducts productions of Puccini’s
Tosca, Gounod’s
Faust, Mozart’s
The Marriage of Figaro, and Berlioz’s
The Damnation of Faust at Lyric
Opera of Chicago and Britten’s
Albert Herring at Santa Fe Opera. He also leads the
Rotterdam Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestra, and other
ensembles. He is returning to the BBC Symphony Orchestra at The BBC Proms and in
London, and to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Sir Andrew Davis is also a prolific recording artist. He has recorded for Decca, Deutsche
Grammophon, Warner Classics International, Capriccio, EMI, and CBS labels. In 2008
he released Elgar’s Violin Concerto featuring James Ehnes with London’s Philharmonia
Orchestra (Onyx Classics), which won Gramophone’s award for “Best of Category –
Concerto.” Releases in 2007 included Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Min-Jyn Kim and the Philharmonia Orchestra (Sony); a solo recital of operatic favorites sung by
soprano Nicole Cabell with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Decca), which won the
Solti Prize from the French Académie du Disque Lyrique; and Liszt’s Piano Concerto
No. 1 and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist Yundi Li and the London
Philharmonia Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon). In 1992 Sir Andrew was named a
Commander of the British Empire and, in 1999, was made a Knight Bachelor in the New
Year Honours List. In 1991 he received the Royal Philharmonic Society/Charles
Heidsieck Music Award.
“Andrew Davis... a man who seems able to put his hand to anything and make a sensitive, committed, rhythmically incisive triumph of it.”
(The Independent on Sunday)