Photo: Steve J Sherman

Andrew Litton

CONDUCTOR
Music Director: New York City Ballet Orchestra
Conductor Laureate: Bournemouth Symphony

Representation: General Management

Andrew Litton is Music Director of the New York City Ballet. He is also Conductor Laureate of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and was previously Music Director Laureate of Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic. Under his leadership the Bergen Philharmonic gained international recognition through extensive recording and touring, making debuts at the BBC Proms, at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and appearances at Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and New York’s Carnegie Hall.  For his work with the Bergen Philharmonic, Norway’s King Harald V knighted him with the Norwegian Royal Order of Merit.

Andrew was Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra from 1988-1994. During this time, he led the orchestra on their first American tour and produced 14 recordings, including the Grammy-winning Belshazzar’s Feast. As Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 1994-2006, he hired over one third of the players, led the orchestra on three major European tours, appeared four times at Carnegie Hall, created a children’s television series broadcast nationally and in widespread use in school curricula, produced 28 recordings, and helped raise the orchestra’s endowment from $19 million to $100 million.  He regularly guest conducts leading orchestras and opera companies around the globe and adds to his discography of over 130 recordings, which have garnered America’s Grammy Award, France’s Diapason d’Or and other honours.

In addition to conducting over 30 ballets at the New York City Ballet, Andrew returns regularly to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (where he is a former Principal Guest Conductor) Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and guest conducts with a wide range of international orchestras – recent and forthcoming highlights including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Dallas Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, and the Royal Swedish Orchestra.

An avid opera conductor with a keen theatrical sense, Andrew has led major opera companies throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Australian Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin. In Norway, he was key to founding the Bergen National Opera, where he led numerous critically acclaimed performances. He often conducts semi-staged opera programmes with symphony orchestras.  During his 14-year tenure as Artistic Director of the Minnesota Orchestra Sommerfest, he concluded the festival with sold-out performances of Salomé, Der Rosenkavalier, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Tosca, Rigoletto, La Traviata and others. He conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the 2021 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

Andrew’s work with New York City Ballet has earned praise from critics, dancers, and audiences, bringing new prominence to the Ballet’s orchestra. He began his ballet work while still a Juilliard student, performing as on-stage pianist for Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, and Cynthia Gregory.

An accomplished pianist, Andrew often performs as piano soloist, conducting from the keyboard, most recently Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Singapore. An acknowledged expert on George Gershwin, he has performed and recorded Gershwin widely as both pianist and conductor and serves as Advisor to the University of Michigan Gershwin Archives. After leading the Covent Garden debut of Porgy and Bess, Andrew arranged his own concert suite of the work, which is now performed around the world. In 2014 he released his first solo piano album, A Tribute to Oscar Peterson, a testimony to his passion for jazz, particularly the music of that great pianist.

Andrew’s Dallas Symphony Rachmaninov Piano Concerto recordings with Stephen Hough, widely hailed as the best since the composer’s own, won the Classical Brits/BBC Critics Award.  He also received a Grammy nomination for his recording of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with the New York Philharmonic and Patti Lupone.

Born in New York City, Andrew graduated from the Fieldston School and earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School in Piano and Conducting. He served as assistant conductor at La Scala and at the National Symphony under Rostropovich. His many honours in addition to Norway’s Order of Merit include Yale’s Sanford Medal, the Elgar Society Medal, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bournemouth.

 

Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact James Brown Management to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.  Email: Elin Jones

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May 17th, 2023

Anthony Marwood is in Australia and New Zealand for a month, working with Sydney Conservatorium, the Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne Recital Centre (a recital with pianist Stefan Cassomenos) and on the jury of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in Queenstown and Auckland, New Zealand. Andrew Litton heads to Adelaide this week for a RachmaninoffRead more ›

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Andrew Litton returns to the Bergen Philharmonic

April 10th, 2023

Andrew Litton returns once again to Bergen this month after a highly successful twelve years as Music Director there, which began twenty years ago. Under his leadership the Bergen Philharmonic gained international recognition through extensive recording and touring, making debuts at the BBC Proms, at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and appearances at Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Philharmonie, andRead more ›

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Andrew Litton jumps in with the Seattle Symphony

November 14th, 2022

Due to visa-processing issues which made it impossible for Alexander Shelley to appear, Andrew Litton stepped in at short notice this month for three performances with the Seattle Symphony, which as luck would have it, fell in the one available period in his autumn diary. The programme included the world premiere of  Antiphaser, a concertoRead more ›

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Andrew Litton conducts at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World

June 11th, 2021

Andrew Litton, Music Director at New York City Ballet and Principal Guest Conductor at the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, is in the UK this month to conduct for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. This year, the competition will be staged without an audience, in compliance with the latest government guidelines related to COVID-19,Read more ›

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Andrew Litton joins JBM for worldwide management

February 2nd, 2021

JBM is delighted to welcome Andrew Litton to the roster. Music Director of New York City Ballet Orchestra, Andrew Litton holds positions across the world including the title of Principal Guest Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Laureate at the Bergen Philharmonic and Conductor Laureate at the Bournemouth Symphony. He guest conducts someRead more ›

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Reviews

Litton elicited consistently inspired playing in the two Debussy works that occupied the second half of the program. Following Antiphaser’s at times apocalyptic soundscape, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune served as a serene chaser filled with the “sun-consumed” delights envisioned in Mallarmé’s poem. Like a film’s establishing shot, Demarre McGill’s gorgeously phrased introductory flute solo opened the door into Debussy’s encompassing dreamscape. Litton’s gentle, patient pacing and exquisite textural balancing suggested not so much an erotic fantasy enjoyed by the faun as a blissful vision of biophilia as described by the late Edward O. Wilson.

Classical Voice North America

Litton provided exciting, sculpted performances of Debussy and Ravel…Litton’s interpretation of La Mer rippled with tension…I hope he comes back.

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Discography

BIS (2021)

Ives
The first and fourth symphonies along with “Central Park in the Dark” with Dallas Symphony Orchestra

HYPERION
Ives

The second and third symphonies along with “General William Booth enters into Heaven” with Dallas Symphony Orchestra

HYPERION

Rachel Barton Pine

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Artist Manager

James Brown
jb@jamesbrownmanagement.com
+44 (0) 1223 641750

Associate Artist Manager

Elin Jones
ej@jamesbrownmanagement.com
+44 (0) 1223 641753