Biography
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Born
22 November 1951 (age 73)
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Born In
Berkeley, Alameda County, California, United States
Kent Nagano (born November 22, 1951) is a Japanese-American conductor.
He was born in Berkeley, California while his parents were in graduate school at the University of California. He grew up in Morro Bay. He studied sociology and music at the University of California, Santa Cruz, but moved to San Francisco State University in 1976 to study law. While there, he took composition courses from Grosvenor Cooper and Roger Nixon.
His first conducting job was with the Opera Company of Boston, where he was assistant conductor to Sarah Caldwell. He has been the conductor of the Berkeley Symphony for 26 years. He became principal conductor and artistic director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, while still maintaining his relationship with the Berkeley Symphony. He then became the music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and the Opéra de Lyon.
Olivier Messiaen chose Nagano to premiere his opera Saint François d'Assise in 1983. He has been a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, where he premiered Katja Saariaho's L'Amour de loin in 2000. He also conducted the world premier of John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer in Brussels.
He became the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in 2006 and of the Bavarian State Opera in 2006. He relinquished his position at the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in September 2006.
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