Kent Nagano is considered one of today’s outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. Since September 2015, he has been General Music Director of the Hamburgische Staatsoper and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg. He will be the next Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España (OCNE) in Madrid starting in September 2026. In addition, he is committed as Artistic Director of the "Ring" project "The Wagner Cycles" of Dresdner Musikfestspiele with Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln, and as patron of the Herrenchiemsee Festival. He has been Honorary Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin since 2006, of Concerto Köln since 2019, of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 2021 and of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester since 2023.
The 2024/25 season is Kent Nagano’s last season as General Music Director in Hamburg and brings four new productions to the Staatsoper under his musical direction: Carl Orff’s "Trionfi", Richard Strauss’ "Ariadne auf Naxos", Unsuk Chin’s "The Dark Side of the Moon", and Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier’s "The Illusions of William Mallory". Furthermore, he conducts symphony concerts with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester in the Elbphilharmonie as he does every season, including the New Year’s performance and the world premiere of Alex Nante’s symphony "Anahata", a work commissioned by the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester.
Highlights of recent seasons in Hamburg have included opera productions such as "Boris Godunov", "Salome", performances of Sciarrino’s "Venere e Adone" and Britten’s "Peter Grimes", "Les Troyens", "Lulu", "Lessons in Love and Violence" and the world premiere of "Stilles Meer" as well as "Les Contes d’Hoffmann" in the new production by Daniele Finzi Pasca (released on DVD by EuroArts in February 2022), the “Philharmonische Akademie” in St. Michaelis, open-air concerts at the Rathausmarkt and the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s work "Waves" for organ and orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie. Orchestral tours with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg have taken him to Japan, Spain and South America.
In the 2024/25 season, Kent Nagano conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Passau, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in Montréal and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, among others. He also conducts Dusapin’s "Il Vaggio, Dante" in a production by Claus Guth at the Opera national de Paris and the revival of Ligeti’s "Le Grand Macabre" in a production by Krzysztof Warlikowski at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.
As a much sought-after guest conductor, Kent Nagano regularly works with leading international orchestras worldwide, including the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Orchestre Philharmonique Radio France, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre de l’Opéra national in Paris, the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and the Wiener Symphoniker. A special project was the Bernstein opera "A quiet place" at Paris Opera. Other opera productions include the world premiere of Dusapin’s "Il Viaggio, Dante" at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Hindemith’s "Cardillac", Henze’s "Die Bassariden" and the world premiere of Saariaho’s "L’amour de loin" at the Salzburger Festspiele. Other world premieres conducted by him include Bernstein’s "A White House Cantata" and the operas "Alice in Wonderland" by Unsuk Chin, "Three Sisters" by Peter Eötvös and "The Death of Klinghoffer" and the oratorio "El Niño" by John Adams.
Under the artistic direction of Kent Nagano and the Intendant of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele Jan Vogler, Wagner’s "Ring" tetralogy is being performed in the artistic context of the period in which it was composed, based on the latest findings of research into Wagner and performance practice, and integrated into an extensive supporting program as part of the multi-year project "The Wagner Cycles" of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele from 2023 to 2026. The first performance in 2023 was "Das Rheingold" at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele and a tour to Cologne, Ravello and Lucerne. "Die Walküre" followed in 2024 as the second part of the epochal opus in Prague, Amsterdam, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg and Lucerne. In 2025, the project devotes itself to Richard Wagner’s "Siegfried" with historically informed concert performances in international concert halls and opera houses.
Highlights of Kent Nagano’s collaboration with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal as Music Director from 2006 to 2020 included the inauguration of the orchestra’s new concert hall La Maison Symphonique in September 2011, performances of the complete cycles of Beethoven and Mahler symphonies, Schoenberg’s "Gurre-Lieder", concert versions of Wagner’s "Tannhäuser," "Tristan und Isolde" and "Das Rheingold", Honegger’s "Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher", and Messiaen’s "Saint François d’Assise". Tours have taken Kent Nagano and the orchestra to Canada including the Northern Territories, Japan, South Korea, Europe (last 2019), Latin America and the USA. In July 2018, the conductor led Krzysztof Penderecki’s "St. Luke Passion" with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at the opening concert of Salzburger Festspiele.
His recordings with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal on Sony Classical/Analekta include Mahler’s Orchestral Songs with Christian Gerhaher (2013) and a complete recording of all of Beethoven’s symphonies (2015). Decca released a recording of the North American premiere of "L’Aiglon", a rarely performed opera by Honegger and Ibert in 2016. Further releases by Decca are "Danse Macabre" with works by Dukas, Saint-Saëns, Ives and others in 2016 as well as a recording of Bernstein’s "A quiet place" in 2018 on the occasion of the composer’s 100th birthday. John Adams’ "Common Tones in Simple Time" und "Harmonielehre" (Decca) were released in 2019, the "St. Luke Passion" by Penderecki (BIS) and works by Ginastera, Bernstein and Moussa (Analekta) in 2020.
At the Bayerische Staatsoper, where he was General Music Director from 2006 to 2013, Kent Nagano commissioned new operas such as "Babylon" by Jörg Widmann, "Das Gehege" by Wolfgang Rihm and "Alice in Wonderland" by Unsuk Chin. New productions included Mussorgsky’s "Boris Godunov" and "Chowanschtschina", Strauss’ "Ariadne auf Naxos" and "Die Frau ohne Schatten", Poulenc’s "Dialogues des Carmelites", Messiaen’s "Saint François d’Assise," Berg’s "Wozzeck", George Benjamin’s "Written on skin" and Wagner’s "Der Ring des Nibelungen". Tours took Kent Nagano and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester through Europe and Japan. In addition to Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7 (Sony), Kent Nagano has released several opera performances with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester on DVD: Unsuk Chin’s "Alice in Wonderland "(2008) and Mussorgsky’s "Chowanschtschina" (2009) with unitel classica/medici arts, "Dialogues des Carmélites" with Bel Air Classiques (2011) and "Lohengrin" (2010) with Decca.
Another very important period in Kent Nagano’s career was his time as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2000 to 2006. He performed Schönberg’s "Moses und Aron" with the orchestra (in collaboration with Los Angeles Opera) and took them to the Salzburg Festival to perform both Zemlinsky’s "Der König Kandaules" and Schreker’s "Die Gezeichneten", as well as to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with "Parsifal" and "Lohengrin" in productions by Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Recordings with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin for Harmonia Mundi include repertoire as diverse as Bernstein’s Mass, Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 6, Beethoven’s "Christus am Ölberge", Wolf’s "Mörike-Lieder," Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Schönberg’s "Die Jakobsleiter" and "Friede auf Erden", as well as Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 and Schönberg’s Variationen für Orchester Op. 31. In June 2006, at the end of his tenure with the orchestra, Kent Nagano was given the title Honorary Conductor by the members of the orchestra – which made him only the second recipient of this honour in their 60-year history. To this day he maintains a close friendship with the orchestra.
In October 2019, Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama expanded their joint recordings of Beethoven’s works for piano and orchestra with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 0 E‑flat Major WoO 4, a nearly unknown work from the composer’s youth, and his Rondo for Piano and Orchestra WoO 6 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The complete edition of Beethoven’s piano concerti was released on the Berlin Classics label.
Nagano was awarded Grammys for his recordings of Busoni’s "Doktor Faust" with Opéra National de Lyon, Prokofiev’s "Peter and the Wolf" with the Russian National Orchestra and Saariaho’s "L’amour de loin" with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He has worked with labels such as BIS, Decca, Sony Classical, FARAO Classics and Analekta for many years, and has also recorded CDs with Berlin Classics, Erato, Teldec, Pentatone, Deutsche Grammophon and Harmonia Mundi.
To celebrate Kent Nagano’s 70th birthday in 2021, a 3‑CD box set of works by Olivier Messiaen was released on the BR Klassik label. The release includes live recordings of the works "Poèmes pour Mi", "Chronochromie" and "La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ" from his concerts with the Symphonieorchester und Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, demonstrating his close familiarity with Messiaen’s musical language in a special way.
In September 2021, Kent Nagano published his second book with Berlin Verlag: In "10 Lessons of my Life", he recalls ten deeply personal encounters from which he learned important lessons, not only for his career but for his life more broadly. Among those experiences are encounters with the Icelandic pop artist Björk, Frank Zappa, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, and the Nobel Prize winner in physics Donald Glaser.
In 2015 Kent Nagano published "Erwarten Sie Wunder!", also in Berlin Verlag, a passionate appeal for the relevance of classical music in today’s world. In 2019 the book was released in English by the Canadian McGill-Queen’s University Press under the title "Classical Music – Expect the Unexpected” and in 2015 as "Sonnez, merveilles!" in French by Éditions du Boréal.
Born in California, Kent Nagano maintains close connections with his home state and was Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra from 1978 to 2009. His first major successes came with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1984, when Messiaen appointed him assistant to conductor Seiji Ozawa for the premiere of his opera "Saint François d’Assise". Nagano’s success in America led to European appointments: Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon (1988–1998) and Music Director of the Hallé Orchestra (1991–2000). In 2003, he became the first Music Director of Los Angeles Opera, after having already held the position of Principal Conductor for two years.
Kent Nagano was awarded an honorary doctorate from McGill University in Montréal in 2005, an honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal in 2006, and an honorary doctorate from San Francisco State University in 2018. Since 2017, Kent Nagano has been a "Compagnon" of the "Ordre des arts et des lettres" of Québec, and in the fall of 2023, he was also awarded the title of "Chevalier" in the “Ordre des art et des lettres" of France. In February 2024, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal President, and in June 2024 he was awarded the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honor. Furthermore, Kent Nagano has been the recipient of the 2024 Brahms Prize of the Brahms Society of Schleswig-Holstein.