Charles Dutoit - The Philadelphia Orchestra, Conductor/Artistic Director

Photo Credit: Chris Lee

Chief conductor and artistic adviser of The Philadelphia Orchestra, beginning in September 2008, as
well as artistic director and principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic, beginning in 2009, Charles
Dutoit regularly collaborates with the world’s leading orchestras. Since his debut with The Philadelphia
Orchestra in 1980, Mr. Dutoit has been invited each season to conduct all the major orchestras of the
United States, including those of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, San
Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. He has also performed regularly with all the great orchestras of
Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonic and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as the
Israel Philharmonic and the major orchestras of Japan, South America, and Australia. Mr. Dutoit has
recorded extensively for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Philips, CBS, Erato, and other labels
with American, European, and Japanese orchestras. His more than 170 recordings, half of them with
the Montreal Symphony, have garnered more than 40 awards and distinctions.

Since 1990 Mr. Dutoit has been artistic director and principal conductor of The Philadelphia
Orchestra’s summer festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Between 1990 and 1999, he
also directed the Orchestra’s summer series at the Mann Center, and led them in a series of distinctive
recordings. From 1991 to 2001, he was music director of the Orchestre National de France. In 1996
he was appointed principal conductor, and in 1998 music director, of the NHK Symphony in Tokyo.
For 25 years (1977 to 2002), Mr. Dutoit was artistic director of the Montreal Symphony.
When still in his early 20s, Mr. Dutoit was invited by Herbert von Karajan to lead the Vienna State
Opera. Mr. Dutoit has since conducted regularly at Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, and the
Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He also led productions at the Los Angeles Music Center Opera and the
Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Mr. Dutoit holds honorary doctorates from McGill University, the University of Montréal, and Université
Laval. In 1982 he was named Musician of the Year by the Canadian Music Council; in 1988 the same
organization awarded him the Canadian Music Council Medal. In 1991 Mr. Dutoit was made an
Honorary Citizen of the City of Philadelphia. In 1994 the Canadian Conference of the Arts awarded
him their Diploma of Honour. In 1995 the government of Québec named him Grand Officier de l’Ordre
National du Québec, and in 1996 the government of France made him Commandeur de l’Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres. He has also been invested as an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada, the
country’s highest award of merit. Mr. Dutoit was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his musical
training took him to Geneva, Siena, Venice, and Tanglewood, where he worked with Charles Munch.
A globetrotter motivated by his passion for history and archaeology, political science, art, and
architecture, Mr. Dutoit has traveled and visited all the nations of the world. He maintains residences in
Switzerland, Paris, Montreal, Buenos Aires, and Tokyo