Marilyn Nelson Chair

Andrew Litton, now in his tenth season as the Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest Artistic Director, has a distinguished international reputation and a warm relationship with Orchestra musicians, staff and the community. His spirit of collegiality, inspired programming and superb performances, both on the podium and at the keyboard, have contributed to the appeal of Sommerfest for audiences and artists alike. This season, in addition to shaping and leading the 2012 Sommerfest, he returns to the Orchestra Hall podium in February for concerts featuring Vadim Gluzman in Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto and culminating in a performance of the Leningrad Symphony of Shostakovich, a composer whose works he has presented to particular acclaim.

Litton, currently based in New York, is also music director of Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic, conductor laureate of Britain’s Bournemouth Symphony, and music director emeritus of the Dallas Symphony—and makes regular appearances with all of them in addition to guest conducting the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. He adds each year to his discography of nearly 100 recordings, which have garnered honors including a Grammy Award.

Andrew Litton’s work in Bergen has also brought tributes. In May 2011 the King of Norway made him a Knight of the Norwegian Order of Merit, recognizing his artistic achievements and his extraordinary success in raising the international profile of the Bergen Philharmonic. Though the orchestra is one of the oldest in the world, it was not widely known when Litton, its first American music director, took the helm in 2003. Since then he has led it on tour to Europe’s greatest concert halls, from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw to the Berlin Philmarmonie and Vienna Musikverein, and on a groundbreaking tour of the U.S. that was crowned by a triumphant performance in Carnegie Hall. The Norwegian opera company he launched with his Bergen musicians, Den Nye Oper (The New Opera) of Bergen, has performed Tosca, Carmen, The Flying Dutchman and, most recently, a new production of La Bohème, to sold-out houses and critical acclaim. His contract with the Bergen Philharmonic has been extended through 2015, when he will oversee the orchestra’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

This season, Litton’s engagements in Bergen include two all-Russian programs featuring major works by Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and Strauss and collaborations with violinist Vadim Guzman and pianist Yevgeny Sudbin; he also leads a highly anticipated concert of music by Gershwin, another of his specialties. Elsewhere during 2011-12 he debuts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Bonn’s Beethovenhalle Orchestra, among other ensembles, and guest conducts across Europe and North America, leading orchestras including the Netherlands Philharmonic, the MDR Sinfonie of Leipzig, the Hamburg Symphony, Belgian National Orchestra, Bournemouth and City of Birmingham symphony orchestras, the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., and the Vancouver Symphony. Violinist Gil Shaham and pianists Stephen Hough, William Wolfram and Jon Kimura Parker are among the additional artists with whom he frequently collaborates.

Litton spent much of the last season in the opera pit, presiding over the first production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin of Richard Strauss Die Liebe der Danae since its 1952 premiere; Arthaus recorded the production for DVD release. His Australian Opera debut in Sydney with Der Rosenkavalier was also filmed for theatrical release. He also returned to the Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, BBC Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de Lille, among many other orchestras.

Litton has drawn consistent acclaim for his work as an opera conductor. He has conducted the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Welsh National Opera, Los Angeles Opera and English National Opera, among others. During 2008-09 he led an ecstatically received new production of Richard Strauss’ Egyptian Helen at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Bringing his love of opera to Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Litton regularly closes Sommerfest with sold-out performances of semi-staged or concert opera, most recently leading performances of Der Rosenkavalier.

Litton’s recordings include the complete Rachmaninoff piano concertos with Stephen Hough and the Dallas Symphony; widely hailed as the best since the composer’s own recordings, they were honored with the Classical Brits/BBC Critics Award. Also notable are his Grammy-winning Belshazzar’s Feast with the Bournemouth Symphony and baritone Bryn Terfel, a Grammy-nominated Sweeney Todd with the New York Philharmonic and Patti LuPone, and numerous recordings with Litton in a dual role—as piano soloist conducting from the keyboard. He and the Bergen Philharmonic record regularly on the British Hyperion and Swedish BIS labels, for the latter of which they have completed a particularly lauded cycle of the complete Mendelssohn symphonies as well as award-winning albums of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Vadim Gluzman. Their initial release in a Stravinsky ballet series has also been met with great enthusiasm.

An orchestra builder, Litton brought the Bournemouth Symphony, of which he was principal conductor from 1988-1994, on its first American tour and produced 14 recordings, including Belshazzar’s Feast. As music director of the Dallas Symphony from 1994-2006, he hired more than one third of the players, led the orchestra on three major European tours, appeared four times at Carnegie Hall, created a children’s television series broadcast nationally and in widespread use in school curricula, and produced 28 recordings.

Andrew Litton began piano studies at age five and at ten decided to become a conductor. He graduated from Fieldston School, New York, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard in piano and conducting. The youngest-ever winner of the BBC International Conductors Competition, he served as assistant conductor at La Scala and Exxon/Arts Endowment Assistant Conductor of the National Symphony under Rostropovich. His many honors include an honorary doctorate from the University of Bournemouth, Yale University’s Sanford Medal and the Elgar Society Medal. For further information, visit andrewlitton.com.

September 2011