Thomas Søndergård

Thomas Søndergård (born 4 October 1969 in Holstebro, Denmark) is a Danish conductor and Music Director of Royal Scottish National Orchestra, following six seasons as Principal Guest Conductor. He served as Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) between September 2012 and August 2018, and prior to this, as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra for three seasons.

UK guest conducting has included London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony  and in Scandinavia, Danish National Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony and Finnish Radio Symphony.  He has also toured with the Royal Danish Orchestra to Hamburg and Korea.  German ensembles have included Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Berlin and Moscow), Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Berlin Festival and Poland) Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Bamberger Symphoniker and SWR Sinfonieorchester . Elsewhere in Europe, appearances have included Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonic and Brussels Philharmonic; Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Orchestre National de Lyon.  North America has included Chicago Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony and Seattle Symphony.

Highlights of Thomas’ 20/21 season with RSNO include leading its first digital season in works by Beethoven, Wagner and Mozart, among others; and an eight-concert tour of Japan with acclaimed soloists Midori and Kyoko Takezawa, for the 38th edition of the prestigious Toshiba Grand Concert. He also returns to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Royal Danish Opera and Chicago Symphony. This season sees Thomas makes his debut with Zurich Opera (The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny ) and with NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover.

Søndergård studied percussion at the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 1989 to 1992, where his teachers included Gert Mortensen. In the same years Søndergård was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra. He joined the Royal Danish Orchestra as a percussionist in 1992. He served on the faculty of the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 2001 to 2002.

Thomas Søndergård devoted greater attention to conducting from age 27.[1] After his debut at The Royal Danish Opera with the premiere of Poul Ruders' Kafka's Trial in 2005, Søndergård joined the Askonas Holt management. In 2009 he became principal conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK) and concluded his KORK tenure after the 2011-2012 season.[2]

Søndergård first conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) in December 2009, as an emergency substitute for Thierry Fischer. In July 2011, Søndergård was named the 14th principal conductor of the BBC NOW, effective with the 2012-2013 season, for an initial contract of 4 years.[3][4] In February 2016, the BBC NOW announced the further extension of his contract as principal conductor through "at least 2018".[5] Søndergård formally concluded his tenure as principal conductor of the BBC NOW in July 2018.[6]

Søndergård first guest-conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) in 2009. as an emergency substitute for Yakov Kreizberg. In October 2011, the RSNO named him its principal guest conductor, effective with the 2012-2013 season, with an initial contract of 3 years for 3 programmes per year.[7] In May 2017, the RSNO announced the appointment of Søndergård as its next principal conductor, effective with the 2018-2019 season.[8]

Thomas Sondergard has recorded a number of CD's for the Linn label.[9] but also conducted commercial recordings for the DaCapo label, including music of Bent Lorentzen, Per Nørgård, and Poul Ruders,[10]