ThomasSøndergård
- Conductor
About Thomas
Music Director: Minnesota Orchestra Music Director: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is the Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as the Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, following six seasons as their Principal Guest Conductor. Between 2012 and 2018, he served as Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW), after stepping down as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
With the Minnesota Orchestra in 2024/25, Thomas leads a diverse range of programmes, including a Nordic Composers Festival, concert performances of Puccini's Turandot, and projects with leading soloists such as Yunchan Lim, Isabelle Faust, Julia Bullock and Bruce Liu. Highlights with the RSNO this season include Mahler's epic Symphony No. 2, a collaboration with Dunedin Consort, and closing the season with a celebration of the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. Other highlights for Thomas this season include his returns to Deutsche Oper Berlin (Elektra), Den Norske Opera (Peer Gynt), and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Thomas will also lead a project with the Aarhus Symfoniorkester celebrating the 750th anniversary of the city of Holstebro - his home city.
He has appeared with many notable orchestras in leading European centres, such as Berlin (including Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin), Munich (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk), Zurich (Tonhalle Orchester Zurich), Leipzig (Gewandhausorchester), Paris (Orchestre National de France), London (London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra), Amsterdam and Rotterdam (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic) and is a familiar figure in Scandinavia, with such orchestras as Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic. North American appearances to date have included the symphony orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St Louis, Toronto, Atlanta, Montreal, Vancouver, Houston and Seattle. He has also made highly successful tours to China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
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Availability & General Enquiries
Edward Pascall
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Adam Brady
Representation
Season Highlights
Video
- Playing
Thomas Søndergård conducts Mahler Symphony No. 1
Credit: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Thomas Søndergård conducts Prokofiev Symphony No. 6
Credit: SWR Symphonieorchester
Thomas Sondergard conducts Dvorak Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"
Credit: NDR Radiophilharmonie
Thomas Søndergård conducts Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Credit: Minnesota Orchestra
Thomas Søndergård conducts Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade for Orchestra
Credit: Minnesota Orchestra
Photos
News
Thomas Søndergård debuts with New York Philharmonic
Thomas Søndergård debuts with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
Thomas Søndergård debuts with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Thomas Søndergård extends contract with Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Multiple US debuts for Thomas Søndergård
Thomas Søndergård appointed Music Director of Minnesota Orchestra
Thomas Søndergård extends Music Director contract with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Thomas Søndergård debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Press
RSNO: Dvorak Symphony No. 6
EdinburghNov 2023"Thomas Søndergård shaped the opening movement with a gorgeous sense of heft, with the main theme slowly and beautifully filling out but always moving forwards purposefully. The sweet, sunlit slow movement benefited from drop-dead-gorgeous string tone, and a lucidly played Trio sat in the middle of a storming Furiant."
- Bachtrack
- 04 November 2023
Minnesota Orchestra: Music Director Inaugural Concerts
MinneapolisSep 2023"It was stirring at the start, as effervescent as champagne at its center, and as big and bold as one could wish in its almost-hourlong finale. And throughout it all, Søndergård seemed a leader with firm ideas about what he wanted from the music and a very graceful way of communicating them. When Søndergård and the orchestra reached the summit at the center of the piece, it was pure ecstatic triumph. And what a storm the orchestra summoned up, especially in the percussion section, a group that may be forging a special connection with the conductor, as that's the part of the orchestra in which he launched his professional career."
- Star Tribune
- 21 September 2023
RSNO: Sibelius, Berlioz and Sørensen
GlasgowNov 2021★★★★★ "The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s music director Thomas Søndergård invited us to join him on an emotionally intense programme of music depicting vivid memories of times and places, from Bert Sørensen’s childhood landscapes through a journey of love and loss from Berlioz and rounding off with an astonishing performance of a favourite Sibelius symphony." [In the Sørensen] "Søndergård brought order to the pungent chaos, carefully taming the vivid frenzy. A soft oboe solo brought us back to the lone violin as the music slowly drifted into a deep rural silence." [In the Berlioz] "Søndergård balanced his forces sensitively, allowing them to swell out in passionate moments but never overwhelming his singer even with Morison in her darkest, lower register." [Sibelius] "It is a concert hall favourite, but Søndergård and the orchestra gave a performance as if this was a newly discovered score with phrasing and dynamics detailing far corners of the work."
- Bachtrack
- 22 November 2021
