Charles Dutoit - The Philadelphia Orchestra, Conductor/Artistic Director

Photo Credit: Chris Lee

Since his debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1980, Charles 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. 

Mr. Dutoit will become chief conductor and artistic adviser of The Philadelphia in September 2008. Since 1990 he 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, with which he made a number of recordings and toured extensively. 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. Dutoitwas 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.

In 1988 the government of France made Mr. Dutoit an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and in 1996 he was promoted to Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1991 he was made an Honorary Citizen of the City of Philadelphia. In 1995 the government of Québec named him Grand Officier de l’Ordre National du Québec. He has also been awarded the Canadian Music Council Medal as well as the Diploma of Honor by the Canadian Conference of the Arts. In 1998 he was invested as 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 so far 172 countries. He maintains residences in Switzerland, Paris, Montreal, Buenos Aires and Tokyo.