Jonathan Darlington

Sensitivity for depth and balance and an infectious dynamism are the hallmarks of Jonathan Darlington’s work. As music director of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director of Vancouver Opera since 2002, his demand for the highest level of professionalism and precision, infused with genuine enthusiasm, has ever increased the quality and popularity of both orchestras.

His most recent operatic successes include the world première of Manfred Trojahn’s La Grande Magia with the Staatkapelle Dresden, Charpentier’s Louise with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Eugene Onegin with Vancouver Opera. Last season he directed the Duisburg Philharmonic’s second concert tour through major cities in China, including Wuhan, Shanghai and Beijing. He also returned to the stage as accompanist for Schubert’s ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’ with baritone Dietrich Henschel. His most recent live recordings are Mahler’s Sixth Symphony and Dvořak’s Piano Concerto.

Besides Vancouver and Duisburg, 2009 will take him to the podiums of the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester, the Sydney Opera House for Fidelio, and the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto for the Stravinsky Triple Bill.

After graduating from Durham University and the Royal Academy of Music, London, Jonathan Darlington began his career as freelance pianist, accompanist and répétiteur. As accompanist for Radio France he had the chance to work with some of the most outstanding musical personalities of our time: Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti and Olivier Messiaen. He made his conducting début in 1984 at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées with Francesco Cavalli’s baroque opera Ormindo. At the Berlioz Festival Lyon he was assistant to Serge Baudo and later to John Nelson. In 1990 Myung-Whun Chung engaged Mr. Darlington as deputy to the music director at the Opéra de la Bastille, Paris, where he made his début in 1991 with Le nozze di Figaro.

Renowned for vast symphonic and operatic repertoire which ranges from the baroque to the contemporary, with an emphasis on lesser known contemporary works outside the European mainstream, he gives regular guest appearances with major orchestras and opera houses the world over. He is a regular guest with the Orchestre National de France, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica del San Carlo di Napoli, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the National Orchestra of Taiwan, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, the English National Opera and Sydney Opera.

Jonathan Darlington holds the distinctions of a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Honorary LRAM and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London (FRAM).