Paul Daniel

Paul Daniel will take up the position of Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth in 2009. He has appeared as a guest conductor with major orchestras throughout the world, including the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with whom he has recorded Elijah for Decca and toured to New York, BBC Symphony Orchestra (including at the internationally televised Last Night of the Proms in 2005), Orchestre de Paris, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, the Royal Flanders Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, the Hallé, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,  the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National de Lyon, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, the Sydney Symphony, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.  

Paul Daniel was Music Director of English National Opera from 1997 to 2005.  His repertoire at ENO included Der fliegende Holländer, Falstaff, From the House of the Dead, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Manon, Otello, Boris Godounov, La traviata, Dialogues des Carmélites,Der Rosenkavalier, Pelléas and Mélisande, the world première of The Silver Tassie by Mark Anthony Turnage, Nixon in China, Peter Grimes (at the Aldeburgh Festival), Il Trovatore, War & Peace, Lulu,The Trojans, concert performances of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, staged performances of the Verdi’s Requiem and Wagner’s complete Ring.   Before his appointment, he had already worked extensively with the company where productions included the world première of Harrison Birtwistle's The Mask of Orpheus, Figaro's Wedding, Akhnaten by Philip Glass, Tosca, Carmen, Rigoletto, and performances of King Priam, as part of the Tippett’s 90th birthday celebrations.  In 2008 he returned to the company for a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor.

Paul Daniel was Music Director of Opera Factory from 1987 – 1990, and of Opera North from 1990-1997, where he attracted critical acclaim for his performances of Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, Tippett's King Priam, Don Giovanni, Schreker's Der Ferne Klang, Boris Godunov (with which Opera North made its Prom début in 1992), Don Carlos, Wozzeck, Gloriana, Il trovatore, Pelleas and Melisande, the world premieres of Michael Berkeley's Baa Baa Black Sheep and Benedict Mason's Playing Away, which was premiered at the Munich Biennale, Jenufa, Luisa Miller, Medea, Falstaff and Tannhäuser.

During his tenure as Principal Conductor of the English Northern Philharmonia, the orchestra of Opera North, he conducted numerous concerts throughout the UK and also took the orchestra to many festivals including the Edinburgh Festival and the Festival Musica in Strasbourg.  He made many recordings with the English Northern Philharmonia for EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos and Naxos. His recording of the Elgar/Payne Symphony No 3 with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was one of the best selling classical CDs of 2000.  Dialogues desCarmélites,  Falstaff and Wozzeck have been released in recent seasons by Chandos, and other recent releases include Belshazzar’s Feast for Naxos.

Other operatic engagements have included his Metropolitan Opera début in 2006 conducting Die Zauberflöteand Mitridate at the Royal Opera House, Béatrice et Bénédict and Khovanshchina and Die Entführung aus dem Serailat La Monnaie in Brussels, Erwartung and Duke Bluebeard's Castle for Geneva Opera, Le nozze di Figaro, and the world première of Hans-Jürgen von Bose's Slaughterhouse Five,  new productions of Káťa Kabanováand Pelléas et Mélisande, and Hänsel und Gretel all at the Bayerische Staatsoper,  Henze’s L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe for the Teatro Real in Madrid, a Zemlinsky double-bill and a new production of Billy Budd for the Frankurt Opera, La Clemenza di Tito for the 2005 Festival of Aix-en-Provence, and Death in Venice for the Aldeburgh and Bregenz Festivals.

Future operatic plans include The Makropoulos Case in Madrid, Death in Venice at La Monnaie, Peter Grimes in Oslo and Così fan tutte in Munich.  Future orchestral engagements include concerts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Milwaukee Symphony, and the Real Filharmonia de Galicia.

In February 1998 Paul Daniel received an Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in opera, and in 1999 he received a Gramophone award for his English music series on the Naxos label. He was awarded the CBE in the 2000 New Year’s Honours list.