Jonathan Nott
Photo: Thomas Müller
British conductor Jonathan Nott, 62, will become the new Music Director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu starting in the 2026/2027 season and for five seasons. Nott succeeds Josep Pons who was in this position for fourteen years.
Jonathan Nott was a boy solo singer (with Louis Frémaux and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), sang as a tenor at the University of Cambridge, and studied operatic singing at the Royal Northern College of Music. As a repetiteur at the London Opera Studio, he trained in conducting with David Parry, performed Tosca on the organ, conducted the offstage chorus in Parsifal at Covent Garden (under the baton of Bernard Haitink), and conducted the offstage orchestra in the recording of Donizetti’s L’Assedio di Calais for Opera Rara. As a tenor, he sang with the choirs of St. Paul’s and Westminster cathedrals.
His first position was as repetiteur at the Frankfurt Opera under the direction of Garry Bertini, who also gave him his first chance as conductor. As First Kapellmeister of the Wiesbaden Opera, he conducted a wide repertoire.
Jonathan Nott has held positions as Music Director of the Lucerne Opera, Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He was Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra from 2000 to 2016.
For 12 years he was Principal Conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and from 2014 to 2024 he was Principal Conductor of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. Jonathan Nott also became Music Director and Artistic Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in January 2017.
