DANIEL NAZARETH

Born in Bombay, India, Daniel Nazareth started violin lessons at the age of 7. He attained a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music, London, at the piano in 1969. Nazareth graduated at the VIENNA HOCHSCHULE FÜR MUSIK UND DARSTELLENDE KUNST from the legendary Swarowsky/ Österreicher class with an Honours Diploma in Orchestral Conducting in 1975.

A prize at the 1974 INTERNATIONAL MALKO CONDUCTORS COMPETITION in Copenhagen, Denmark, not only won him concerts through most of Scandinavia but also a private invitation to study with juror Igor Markevitch at his home at San Cézaire in the South of France. He went on to win the FIRST INTERNATIONAL ERNEST ANSERMET CONDUCTING COMPETITION 1975 in Geneva, Switzerland.

On seeing him conduct in London, Gian Carlo Menotti invited him to debut in the summer of 1977 at his International SPOLETO FESTIVAL, Italy, with Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte.

Receiving the LEONARD BERNSTEIN CONDUCTING FELLOWSHIP he spent the summer 1978 at Tanglewood, Mass., USA, where he worked with Bernstein, Colin Davis and Seji Ozawa and won the KOUSSEVITZKY CONDUCTING AWARD.

Herbert von Karajan repeatedly invited Daniel Nazareth to guest conduct his Berlin Philharmonic in West Berlin and the Vienna Symphony at the Musikverein in Vienna. In 1982 Nazareth was appointed Music Director of the SYMPHONISCHES ORCHESTER BERLIN, West Germany.

While assisting Lorin Maazel with a Verdi Requiem production at the TEATRO SAN CARLO, NAPLES, Italy, in 1988, he was appointed Music Director (1988 – 1990). Here he conducted not only his first Verdis and Puccinis like Un Ballo in Maschera, La Traviata, Madama Butterfly, La Rondine, but also works like Britten’s Rape of Lucretia and Orff’s Carmina Burana. In 1989 he was engaged as Music Director at Europe’s largest summer festival: the Ente Lirico ARENA DI VERONA, Italy. Working with some of the greatest voices, he conducted operatic hits like Carmen, Turandot, Aida and Tosca.

The German re-unification brought Nazareth the formidable assignment of rebuilding the Orchestras and Chorus of the MITTELDEUTSCHE RUNDFUNK, LEIPZIG (the world’s oldest and largest Radio Symphony). Under his Music Directorship 1991 to 1997, the MDR Orchestras and Chorus uniquely performed regular subscription concerts not only in Leipzig and Dresden, but also in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Düsseldorf, covering an extensive repertory. They joined Pope John Paul II to celebrate his 15^th anniversary with a live TV concert at the Vatican 1993.

Nazareth has frequently guest conducted the most important European orchestras, including: The Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Frankfurt State Opera Orchestra, Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Orchestra Santa Cecilia, Rome, Orchestre de Paris, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hilversum, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon.

August 2000 Daniel Nazareth conducted the Opera di Roma’s Centenary Production of Puccini’s TOSCA at the Roman Olympic Stadium and at the World Expo 2000 in Hannover/ Germany.

July 2002 Daniel Nazareth conducted the first performance of Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony in the New Critical Edition commissioned by the International Gustav Mahler Society, Vienna, at the BREGENZ FESTIVAL, Austria.

His discography includes a world premiere recording of Respighis’s Sinfonia Drammatica, Mahler’s Symphony N° 1, Beethoven’s Mass in C op. 86, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Janacek’s Taras Bulba and Sinfonietta, Mussorgsky/ Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Borodin’s Polovesian Dances, Orff’s Carmina Burana, etc. He has made several Video productions with the MDR Television Leipzig, including Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Mass in C, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Mahler’s Symphony N° 10, Mozart’s Requiem and Orff’s Carmina Burana. With the Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, Munich, and the Munich Philharmonic he has recorded Messian’s “L’Ascension”, Richard Strauss’ “Aus Italien” and other works.

Nazareth’s composition output includes three piano trios, instrumental sonatas, Gitanjali Songs to texts by Rabrindranath Tagore, Gustav Mahler Songs, a series of “Concerti Sinfonici” for violin and orchestra, viola and orchestra, cello and orchestra, piano and orchestra,  an Italian opera, “Fontana dell’ Amore”, set in medieval Tuscany etc. He has arranged for orchestra a set of Debussy’s Piano Preludes from Book 1 and 2.

He wrote the screenplay “Gustav and Alma” that narrates the triumph and tragedy that overcast the last decade of Gustav Mahler’s life.

Nazareth is creating two major works for the European Capital of Culture Istanbul 2010:

A symphony on evolution for soloists, chorus and large orchestra, reconciling various theories of creation and evolution with the spiritual evolution poetry that Jalal ad- Din Rumi wrote 700 years ago.

An operatic musical “Leonardo’s Bridge”. It narrates the story of a bridge Da Vinci planned at the Golden Horn 1503. Hitherto unknown facts about Da Vinci including his riddle compositions will be presented for the first time.