Jonathan Nott

Jonathan Nott achieved success as a conductor in a rather unusual fashion: with no competition victories under his belt and no mentoring conductor ushering him along, he launched his career in foreign opera houses, eventually conducting orchestral concerts on the side, but often with modern or contemporary works on the bill. Nott developed a reputation for his interpretations of avant-garde music, making a recording early in his career (1996) for BIS that contained works by Xenakis, Berio, and Fornés. He would make others later on, offering music by Ligeti, Feldman, Rihm, and others. In the new century, however, Nott has been drawing praise for his Schubert, Mahler, and Mozart and, of course, for his operatic readings of Verdi, Puccini, and other notables. Nott was born in Solihull, West Midlands, England, on December 25, 1962. His father was an Anglican priest who helped instill the Anglican choral tradition in his son. Nott studied choral music at Cambridge University and then voice and flute at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Soon, however, Nott turned to conducting at the London-based National Opera Studio. Nott debuted at the 1988 Battignano Opera Festival in Italy, and the following year, he secured an appointment as kapellmeister at the Frankfurt Opera. He moved on to the Hessian National Theater in Wiesbaden, where he served as Hoch Kapellmeister from 1991, later holding the position of chief conductor for the 1995-1996 season. In the mid-'90s, Nott began appearing as a guest conductor with major orchestras across the globe, including the Orchestre de Paris, Munich Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw, and the major orchestras of London, New York, and Los Angeles. Nott was appointed principal conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra in 1997, serving until 2002. During this period, he also held the post of music director at the Lucerne Theater. In 2000, Nott was appointed both music director of the Paris-based Ensemble InterContemporain (serving until 2003) and principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (serving until 2016). While with the latter group, Nott added several major accolades, taking up the music director position with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 2012 and the principal conductor and artistic advisor posts with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie in 2014. That year, he made his first appearance with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, which led to the orchestra naming him as its next music and artistic director in 2015, with his tenure beginning in 2017. As of early 2024, he continued to hold these positions. Nott has achieved some of his greatest acclaim on recordings with the Bamberg Symphony and perhaps in the concert hall as well. His cycles of Schubert and Mahler symphonies received lavish acclaim internationally. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke, Rovi