One of today’s most recognized and acclaimed conductors, Sir Andrew
Davis’s career spans over fifty years in which he has been the artistic
leader at several of the world’s most distinguished opera and symphonic
institutions, including Lyric Opera of Chicago (Music Director Emeritus
and Music Director/Principal Conductor from 2000-2021), the BBC
Symphony Orchestra (Conductor Laureate and Chief Conductor from
1989-2000, the longest tenure since that of its founder Sir Adrian Boult),
Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Music Director 1988-2000), Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra (Conductor Laureate and Chief Conductor from
2013-2019), and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Conductor Laureate
and Principal Conductor from 1975-1988), where he also served as
Interim Artistic Director through 2020. In addition, he holds the honorary
title of Conductor Emeritus from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra. Sir Andrew has led performances at many of the world's most
important opera houses, among them the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla
Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Bayreuth Festival, and the
major companies of Munich, Paris, San Francisco, and Santa Fe. In
addition to those ensembles, he has appeared with virtually every other
internationally prominent orchestra, including the Berlin Philharmonic,
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and all the major
British orchestras.
In the 2023/24 season, Sir Andrew conducts the Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra in Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 5 and the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra in his own adaptation of Handel’s Messiah. In
addition to his regular guest appearances with the BBC Symphony
Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Sir
Andrew leads performances with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra,
Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre National de Lyon.
A vast and award-winning discography documents Sir Andrew & artistry.
Recent recordings include Berg’s Violin Concerto/Three Pieces for
Orchestra with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which includes Sir
Andrew’s orchestrations of Piano Sonata, Op. 1 and Passacaglia, as well
as his recordings with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra of the
orchestral works of Carl Vine (winner of the 2022 ARIA Award for Best
Classical Album) and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. Other
titles include the works of Berlioz, Bliss, Elgar (winner of the 2018
Diapason d’Or de l’Année – Musique Symphonique), Finzi, Goossens,
Grainger, Delius, Ives, Holst, Handel (nominated for a GRAMMY in 2018
for Best Choral Performance), Massenet (winner of the 2021 JUNO
Award for Best Classical Album: Vocal or Choral), Stravinsky, Strauss,
and York Bowen (nominated for a GRAMMY in 2012 for Best
Orchestral Performance). His lauded recordings with the BBC Symphony
Orchestra and Chorus celebrating British composers from Teldec’s The
British Line series was recently released as a 16-CD retrospective
collection by Warner Classics. Sir Andrew currently records for Chandos
Records, where he has been an exclusive artist since 2009.
Born in 1944 in Hertfordshire, England, Maestro Davis studied at King’s
College, Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar before taking up
conducting. His diverse repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary,
and spans the symphonic, operatic, and choral worlds. Sir Andrew is a
great proponent of twentieth-century works including those by Janáček,
Messiaen, Boulez, Elgar, Tippett, and Britten, in addition to the core
symphonic and operatic works. As chief conductor, Sir Andrew has
always participated in the creation and premieres of new repertoire and
new compositions, personally conducting a great number of them.
In 1992, Maestro Davis was created a Commander of the British Empire,
and in 1999 he was designated a Knight Bachelor in the New Year
Honours List. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Knox College in
Galesburg, Illinois.
