Daniel Nazareth - Career

Career

A prize at the 1974 International Malko Conducting Competition in Copenhagen, Denmark, brought him not only concerts through most of Scandinavia but also a private invitation to study with juror Igor Markevitch. 1975 Daniel Nazareth won the 1st International Ernest Ansermet Conducting Competition in Geneva, Switzerland.

On seeing Nazareth conduct in London, Gian Carlo Menotti and Samuel Barber invited him to debut in the summer of 1977 at the International Spoleto Festival, Italy, with Mozart’s opera “Cosi fan tutte”.

1978 he received the Leonardo Bernstein Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood, MA, USA. Working with Leonard Bernstein, Colin Davis, Gunther Schuller and Seiji Ozawa, he won the Koussevitzky Conducting Award.

Herbert von Karajan repeatedly invited Daniel Nazareth to guest-conduct the Berlin Philharmonic as well as the Vienna Symphony. In 1982 Nazareth was appointed Music Director of the Symphonisches Orchester Berlin, Germany.

While assisting Lorin Maazel with a Verdi Requiem production at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, Italy, in 1988, he was appointed Music Director of that renowned temple of Italian opera. Here he conducted not only his first Verdi’s and Puccini’s (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 by Europe’s largest summer opera festival: the Arena di Verona, Italy. Working with operatic legends like Luciano Pavarotti and Grace Bumbry, he conducted monumental productions of Carmen, Turandot, Aida and Tosca at the Arena.

The German re-unification brought Nazareth the exciting assignment of rebuilding, as Music Director, the Orchestras and Chorus of the Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk Leipzig, Germany - the world’s oldest and largest Radio/Television Symphony Orchestra. Under his Music Directorship 1991 to 1997, the MDR Orchestras and Chorus performed regular subscription concerts not only at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, but also in Dresden, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Düsseldorf. 1993 they joined Pope John Paul II to celebrate his 15th anniversary with a live TV concert at the Vatican. Under Nazareth’s leadership, the MDR launched in 1992 a new summer music festival, MDR Musiksommer, in the East German states of Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thueringen.

Daniel Nazareth has frequently guest conducted some of the most important European orchestras: 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 Hilversum Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon.

In August 2000 Daniel Nazareth conducted the Opera di Roma’s Centenary Celebration of Puccini’s Tosca at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, Italy, before taking the Zeffirelli production to the World Expo 2000 in Hannover/ Germany.

Nazareth collaborated on the New Critical Edition of Gustav Mahler's 5th Symphony, commissioned by the International Gustav Mahler Society, Vienna. He conducted the world premiere performance of the work to rave reviews at the Bregenz Festival, Austria, in July 2002.

Nazareth's discography includes the highly acclaimed world premiere recording of Respighi’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.

Together with his wife Wiebke, he has written a screenplay depicting the triumph and tragedy that overcast the last decade of Gustav Mahler’s life.

Thanks to a wrist accident that for many years interrupted a thriving conducting career, Daniel Nazareth discovered the joy of creating new music. His compositions to date (published by Sikorski, Hamburg, Germany) include 3 piano trios, "Gitanjali Songs" to texts by Rabindranath Tagore, "Mahler Songs" to texts by Gustav Mahler, "I have a dream", a setting of the Martin Luther King speech for tenor and orchestra, a series of “Concerti Classici” for violin and orchestra, viola and orchestra, cello and orchestra, an Italian opera: “Fontana dell’ Amore”, set in medieval Tuscany etc. He has arranged a set of Debussy’s Piano Preludes from Book 1 and 2 for orchestra.

Daniel Nazareth is presently preparing the production of 2 major works: "The Bara'a Symphony", an 80-minute work in 6 movements for soloists, chorus and large orchestra, that seeks to reconcile various theories of creation and evolution with the spiritual evolution poetry of Sufi-sage Rumi, and “The Leonardo Bridge”, a Singspiel in 3 acts: narrating the story of the bridge Leonardo Da Vinci designed for the Golden Horn in Istanbul 500 years ago, the work is a plaidoyer for the bridging of cultures and peoples. The Singspiel will be premiered in Istanbul, Turkey, to coincide with the actual begin of construction of the Da Vinci Bridge by Turkish star architect Hakan Kiran.

Excerpts from "The Leonardo Bridge” were performed September 11/12 2009 at the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey, for the Interdependence Movement Convention organized by Civworld, New York, USA.

Given his orchestra-builder and audience-magnet reputation, Nazareth was invited to several working periods with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, where he conducted concerts and opera during the 2010/11 season.

Nazareth’s compositions include 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. 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 opera 'The 'Leonardo 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.

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