Biography

Conductor Donald Runnicles has been equally active in opera and concert music in Europe and the U.S. He has amassed a large recording catalog with the various major ensembles he has led. Runnicles was born on November 16, 1954, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was a furniture supply company director who also played the organ and directed a choir. Runnicles attended George Heriot's School in Edinburgh and then moved to George Watson's College, which offered music courses. He studied music at the University of Edinburgh and St. John's College, Cambridge, going on for further studies at the London Opera Centre. He worked as a vocal coach in Mannheim, Germany, and became Generalmusikdirector of the city of Freiburg, Germany, in 1989. Runnicles soaked up the German operatic tradition, and he worked mostly as an opera conductor for the first years of his career. In 1990, he conducted Wagner's Ring Cycle with the San Francisco Opera, and two years later, he was appointed the company's music director. He remained in that post through 2009 and has remained active as a guest conductor. Runnicles made his recording debut in 1994 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, leading Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel; that album appeared on the Teldec label, and Runnicles was associated with that label for many years. After the turn of the century, Runnicles was active increasingly often as a conductor of instrumental music. From 2001 to 2007, he was the principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York. From 2009 to 2016, Runnicles served as the chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He became the principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2001, continuing to hold that position as of the early 2020s through the tenures of several music directors. Runnicles became the music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Colorado in 2005, and he continued to hold that position as of the early 2020s as well. In 2007, Runnicles was appointed Generalmusikdirektor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, assuming the podium in 2009; his contract there has been extended through 2027. Runnicles has a large recording catalog, much of it made with the above-named groups. In addition to Telarc, he has recorded for major labels such as Decca, Hyperion, and Sony Classical. He moved to Reference Recordings in 2023, leading the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in support of pianist Garrick Ohlsson in the complete piano concertos of Beethoven. ~ James Manheim, Rovi