Jeffrey Tate - Conductor
Biography
Today Jeffrey Tate is one of the most renowned and versatile British conductors of his generation. Before committing himself to music, he acquired a doctoral degree in medicine at Cambridge. He began his musical career as a staff member of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. A formative experience was the centenary “Ring” at the Bayreuth Festival, where he was the assistant of Pierre Boulez. On this basis, Tate later developed his own highly regarded interpretation of the “Ring”-Tetralogy in Cologne and Paris (with the Orchestre National de France). The Paris production was afterwards taken over by the Australian Opera in Adelaide and made history as the first complete “Ring” performance in Australia. In addition to Wagner’s musical dramas, the work of Mozart is another focal point in his versatile repertoire.
Jeffrey Tate’s first independent production was “Carmen” in Göteborg. After this successful début, he quickly advanced to become an international opera as well as concert conductor. In Paris he was engaged at Théâtre du Châtelet for “Lulu” and “Peter Grimes”; at the Opéra Bastille he conducted “Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny”, “Billy Budd”, and “Wozzeck”, and “Così fan tutte” in Palais Garnier on the occasion of the reopening of the renovated house. The Covent Garden Opera consigned him with new productions of “Idomeneo”, “Manon”, “Così fan tutte” and “Capriccio“ as well as re-stagings of “Fidelio”, “Carmen”, “Lohengrin” and “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”. Also at the New Yorker Metropolitan Opera, Jeffrey Tate has overseen a broad repertoire from “Don Giovanni” over “Lulu” to “Mahagonny”. In addition, he has engaged himself closely with the Geneva Grand Théâtre, where he conducted “Orpheus”, “Lulu”, “Le Nozze di Figaro”, “The Turn of the Screw” and “Ariadne on Naxos”.
Jeffrey Tate is a frequent and welcome guest in Italy. Following his celebrated Scala début with “Peter Grimes” in Milan, there were performances of “Der Rosenkavalier”, “Tannhäuser” and “Ariadne on Naxos”. At Teatro La Fenice in Venice he conducted “Walküre” and “Siegfried”. Also planned here are “Götterdämmerung” and “Das Rheingold”. After being awarded the Italian Music Critiques Prize Franco Abbiati in 2002 for the production of Humperdinck’s “Königskindern”, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples appointed him Music Director (as of 2005). Aside from “Le Nozze di Figaro”, “Die Walküre”, “Falstaff”, “Candide”, “L’Enfant et les Sortilèges”, “Peter Grimes” and “Entführung aus dem Serail”, he has also conducted numerous concerts in Naples.
In the concert area, Jeffrey Tate has worked together with practically all the large orchestras, among them the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Turin, with which he is connected as Direttore onorario, the London Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Salzburg Mozarteum-Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome, the Danish Radio-Orchestra, the Orchestra of Paris, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra as well as the symphony orchestras of Toronto, Montreal, Melbourne and Sydney.
Jeffrey Tate’s comprehensive discography includes “Arabella”, “Hänsel and Gretel”, “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” and “Lulu”, Mozart’s piano concerts with Mitsuko Uchida, all Mozart symphonies with the English Chamber Orchestra, the most important orchestra pieces of Elgar’s with the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as the complete recordings of Mendelssohn’s “Sommernachtstraum” with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. For his musical achievements, Tate has been awarded the titles of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, and the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in Great Britain.
Since the beginning of the 2009/10 season, Jeffrey Tate has devoted himself primarily to his new appointment as principal conductor of the Hamburg Symphony. In addition, guest commitments in opera and concerts remain on his calendar, including “Ariadne auf Naxos”, “Così fan tutte” and “Rosenkavalier” at the Viennese State Opera, “Flying Dutchman” at Royal Opera House Covent Garden and “Rake’s Progress” in Paris as well as concerts with the Orchestra della RAI Turin and with the Austrian Tonkünstlerorchester.
Last updated: 10.10.2011© We kindly ask you to seek our approval for any alteration or abbreviation of the biography. Thank you for your kind understanding.