Biography
Few would guess that a conductor whose impact on 20th- and 21st-century music has been so far-reaching once came close to practicing law. Kent Nagano’s long tenures with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Opéra National de Lyon, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, together with an acclaimed body of recordings, have established him as a leading force in both orchestral and operatic spheres.
Born in Berkeley, California, on November 22, 1951, Nagano began serious musical study at age six. Even so, he earned degrees in sociology and music from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1974 and then enrolled at San Francisco State University in 1976 to study law. Composition lessons with Grosvenor Cooper and Roger Nixon redirected him toward music, while an encounter with Laszlo Varga—formerly first cellist of the New York Philharmonic under Walter, Mitropoulos, and Bernstein—steered him toward conducting. Although he later abandoned composition, Nagano has said, “While I seemed to be quite able from the point of view of craftsmanship, I was not very good at the creative aspects! However, having the skills of composition only increases the admiration that one can have for the exceptionally talented who have composed great works.” From 1977 to 1979 he served an apprenticeship under Sarah Caldwell at the Opera Company of Boston, ultimately rising to assistant conductor.
In 1978 Nagano became music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, a post he retained until 2009. With that ensemble he conducted the first American performance of Pfitzner’s opera Palestrina in 1982. The same year he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as assistant conductor, he substituted without rehearsal for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 in 1984, revealing an intrepid outlook and interpretive command that were soon confirmed when Olivier Messiaen chose him to help Seiji Ozawa prepare the world premiere of the vast opera Saint François d’Assise in 1984—a work Nagano later recorded.
During his decade as music director of the Opéra National de Lyon (1988–1998) he led numerous notable premieres, among them the Peter Eötvös opera Three Sisters, which he had commissioned, and he made recordings of Debussy’s unfinished Rodrigue et Chimène, John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer, Busoni’s paired operas Arlecchino and Turandot, and Busoni’s Doktor Faust in its unfinished state, using completions by Philipp Jarnach and Antony Beaumont. As music director of the Hallé Orchestra from 1991 to 2000 he recorded John Adams’ El Niño and the four-act version of Britten’s Billy Budd.
Appointed principal conductor and music director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 2000, Nagano assumed the role of principal conductor at the Los Angeles Opera the following year and became the company’s first music director in 2003. He relinquished both posts in 2006 to become music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera; the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester later named him Honorary Conductor. His contract with the Bavarian State Opera concluded in 2013, after which he became general music director and chief conductor of the Hamburg State Opera in 2015, an appointment extended through 2025. Nagano stepped down from the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in 2020 and was named conductor emeritus in 2021.
He is married to pianist Mari Kodama; together they have recorded the complete Beethoven works for piano and orchestra.
Born in Berkeley, California, on November 22, 1951, Nagano began serious musical study at age six. Even so, he earned degrees in sociology and music from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1974 and then enrolled at San Francisco State University in 1976 to study law. Composition lessons with Grosvenor Cooper and Roger Nixon redirected him toward music, while an encounter with Laszlo Varga—formerly first cellist of the New York Philharmonic under Walter, Mitropoulos, and Bernstein—steered him toward conducting. Although he later abandoned composition, Nagano has said, “While I seemed to be quite able from the point of view of craftsmanship, I was not very good at the creative aspects! However, having the skills of composition only increases the admiration that one can have for the exceptionally talented who have composed great works.” From 1977 to 1979 he served an apprenticeship under Sarah Caldwell at the Opera Company of Boston, ultimately rising to assistant conductor.
In 1978 Nagano became music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, a post he retained until 2009. With that ensemble he conducted the first American performance of Pfitzner’s opera Palestrina in 1982. The same year he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as assistant conductor, he substituted without rehearsal for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 in 1984, revealing an intrepid outlook and interpretive command that were soon confirmed when Olivier Messiaen chose him to help Seiji Ozawa prepare the world premiere of the vast opera Saint François d’Assise in 1984—a work Nagano later recorded.
During his decade as music director of the Opéra National de Lyon (1988–1998) he led numerous notable premieres, among them the Peter Eötvös opera Three Sisters, which he had commissioned, and he made recordings of Debussy’s unfinished Rodrigue et Chimène, John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer, Busoni’s paired operas Arlecchino and Turandot, and Busoni’s Doktor Faust in its unfinished state, using completions by Philipp Jarnach and Antony Beaumont. As music director of the Hallé Orchestra from 1991 to 2000 he recorded John Adams’ El Niño and the four-act version of Britten’s Billy Budd.
Appointed principal conductor and music director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 2000, Nagano assumed the role of principal conductor at the Los Angeles Opera the following year and became the company’s first music director in 2003. He relinquished both posts in 2006 to become music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera; the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester later named him Honorary Conductor. His contract with the Bavarian State Opera concluded in 2013, after which he became general music director and chief conductor of the Hamburg State Opera in 2015, an appointment extended through 2025. Nagano stepped down from the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in 2020 and was named conductor emeritus in 2021.
He is married to pianist Mari Kodama; together they have recorded the complete Beethoven works for piano and orchestra.
Albums