“The Seattle Symphony’s popular principal guest conductor Thomas Dausgaard will soon be a guest no longer: In 2019, he’ll ascend to the podium as the orchestra’s music director,” writes Melinda Bargreen in Tuesday’s (10/3) Seattle Times. “The Danish-born Dausgaard will succeed current music director Ludovic Morlot at the start of the 2019-20 season, the beginning of his four-year contract. Dausgaard, now 54, first guest-conducted the Seattle Symphony in 2003, and was appointed principal guest conductor in 2014. It was his 2015 Seattle Symphony Sibelius Festival performances, however, that made the tall, silver-haired Dane a popular figure among the city’s classical-music lovers, with standing ovations after every performance, and the kind of connection with players and audiences that conductors dream of. ‘I am in awe of this orchestra; I’m their biggest fan. I love their excellence, curiosity, and ability to play with abandon,’ Dausgaard said … Seattle Symphony President and CEO Simon Woods observes: ‘It’s very unusual for a conductor to garner this kind of connection with our musicians, our staff, and our community.’ ” Dausgaard is “chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, as well as of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (through 2019), and holds two honorary-conductor posts in Italy and Denmark.”
Posted October 4, 2017
