High-flying British conductor and part-time pilot lands top job with US orchestra
British conductor Daniel Harding, who combines classical music with being a part-time commercial airline pilot, has landed the top job with one of the leading orchestras in the US.
The 50-year-old will take over as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s music director from celebrated Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel in 2027.
Born in Oxford, Harding’s career took off when he was a teenage protege of Sir Simon Rattle, before he led orchestras in Rome, Paris and Stockholm and was the London Symphony Orchestra’s principal guest conductor for a decade.
Since 2022, he has led a double life as a pilot for Air France – a job he will continue after he takes up his position in LA.
‘Conducting genius’
The LA Philharmonic’s creative director Esa-Pekka Salonen described Harding as “absolutely one of the most important conductors of our time”.
Chairman Jason Subotky added: “His conducting genius has been widely hailed since the start of his career, and we are equally impressed by his vision for the role of music director in Los Angeles and his desire to connect to our community.”
Dudamel said he had “a deep admiration for Daniel’s artistry, and for the profound connection he has built” with the orchestra’s musicians when conducting them in the past.
Harding said: “Making music with the magnificent LA musicians is a thrill and an inspiration.
“Over recent years, the LA Phil has developed something extraordinary that cannot be manufactured: a kind of institutional charisma.”
He added: “So many great artists have found possibilities here that don’t exist anywhere else, and I come to California full of excitement for what we will discover and create together.”
Harding studied at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, and was mentored by Sir Simon after a teenage Harding sent a tape to the acclaimed English conductor, who was then leading the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Sir Simon spotted his talent and made Harding his assistant.
By the age of 21, Harding was conducting the Berlin Philharmonic and was the youngest conductor in the history of the BBC Proms.
He helped found the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and won a Grammy Award in 2010 for best opera recording for Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd with the London Symphony Orchestra.
He has also worked as music director of the Orchestre de Paris, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
After turning 40, Harding learned to fly and now pilots Airbus planes for Air France on medium-haul flights across Europe and North Africa for about one week per month.
“In flying, we have to identify all the threats and make sure we don’t go anywhere near them,” he told the New York Times last year. “In music, it’s the opposite. We have to get as close as we can to catastrophe.”
A long-haul trip is now on the horizon after his appointment to the LA Phil.
He will join a select list of British music directors at leading US orchestras over the years.
Sir John Barbirolli, Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Goossens led US orchestras in the first half of the 20th Century, Hungarian-British Sir Georg Solti was at the helm of the Chicago Symphony from 1969 to 1991, and Sir Neville Marriner ran the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra in the 1970s and 80s.
