Duncan Ward

The British conductor Duncan Ward works regularly with major orchestras, including the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre de Paris, HR Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. In January 2020 he was appointed as Music Director of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

From 2012-14 he was Conducting Scholar of the Berliner Philharmoniker Orchester-Akademie, to which he was appointed on the recommendation of Sir Simon Rattle. And from 2015-2017, he was Principal Conductor of Sinfonia. He also held the post of Associate Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

In the 2019/2020 season, Duncan Ward debuts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Aurora Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. He also returns to the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne and the New Japan Philharmonic. At the beginning of the season, he gave the premiere of Brett Dean’s acclaimed Hamlet at Cologne Opera.

He regularly shows the diversity of his repertoire in the collaboration with various ensembles, such as the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the BBC Symphony Orchestra or the Ensemble Modern, as well as through special projects such as the performance with 500 participants in Terry Rileys »In C «in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie or the cooperation with the classical Indian musician Anoushka Shankar.

Operatic engagements have included Dutch National Opera for a double bill of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti; Don Pasquale, Cendrillon and Hamlet for Glyndebourne-on-Tour, La Traviata at Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone at Deutsche Oper. Opportunities during his two years at the Berliner Philharmoniker included assisting and rehearsal conducting for Die Zauberflöte, Gurre-Lieder, Die Walküre, Le Grand Macabre, Britten’s War Requiem, G.F.Haas in vain and premieres by Wolfgang Rihm and Benedict Mason.

Duncan Ward is co-founder of the WAM Foundation for musical exchange between Great Britain and India. He is also closely involved in the South African project MIAGI, whose youth orchestra he conducted on a summer tour in 2018. Also successful as a composer, his works are now published by Edition Peters.