Jan Latham-Koenig

Biography

Acknowledged as one of the finest conductors the United Kingdom has ever produced, Jan Latham-Koenig’s career spans a remarkably diverse operatic and symphonic spectrum. Recent highlights were Béatrice et Bénédict  at Chicago Opera Theater, The Cunning Little Vixen  at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Thaïs  for the Göteborg Opera, I Puritani  for Vienna State Opera, Le nozze di Figaro  at the Finnish National Opera, Lohengrin for Tampereen Oopera and the Novaya Opera in Moscow,Tristan und Isolde  and Il trovatore  for the Prague State Opera (2010, 2011), La traviata  for the Royal Opera Covent Garden (2011/2012), Viaggio a Reims  at the Finnish National Opera and Otello  at the New National Theatre Tokyo (both in 2012). A true European at heart (coming from French, Danish and Polish origin) he studied at the Royal College of Music, London, before going on to win the coveted Gulbenkian Fellowship. His debut conducting Macbeth at the Vienna Staatsoper in 1988 was a sensational success, and catapulted him almost over-night to international fame, going on to conduct well over 100 performances at Vienna, following his appointment as permanent guest conductor in 1991. Since then he has been at the helm during many of the world’s greatest operatic and symphonic moments, including Aida, Macbeth, La bohème, Peter Grimes, Tristan und Isolde, Pelléas et Mélisande, Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt, Carmen, Turandot and Elektra, and the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas, to name but a few. Other outstanding appearances have included Henze’s Venus & Adonis  for the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova,Tosca  for the Opéra National de Paris (Bastille), Jenůfa  and Hamlet  for the Royal Danish Opera, King Roger  for Teatro Massimo di Palermo, the both the Chilean première of Peter Grimes and I Lombardi, in Santiago. Additional personal successes have included Dialogues des Carmelites  for both Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires and Opéra national du Rhin (the latter winning both the Claude-Rostand Best Regional Production Prize 1999 and the Diapason d’or for best opera video in 2001). He later made a triumphant appearance with this work at the BBC Proms. He has enjoyed musical Directorships with ensembles and organisations including the Orchestra of Porto (which he founded at the request of the Portuguese government), the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano, Teatro Massimo di Palermo and both the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Opéra national du Rhin. As Principal Guest Conductor he has enjoyed highly-successful tenures at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Filarmonica del Teatro Regio di Torino. His numerous guest and concert appearances have included the New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the orchestras of Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Sudwestfunk and Baden-Baden in Germany. His appearances with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome have also included the Beethoven Piano Concertos with Evgeny Kissin. October 2007 saw the release of his first CD with the Filarmonica del Teatro Regio in a programme of Poulenc (label AVIE Records/OIDA), which was voted Record of the Month by BBC Music magazine. Jan Latham-Koenig is Music Director of the Novaya Opera in Moscow, Artistic Director of the Orquesta Filarmonica de la UNAM in Mexico City and Artistic Director of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra in Bruges, Belgium.
Update: September 2016