Charles Dutoit

Chief Conductor and Artistic Adviser of The Philadelphia Orchestra and 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 US. He has also performed regularly with all the great orchestras of Europe, Japan, South America, and Australia. Mr. Dutoit has recorded extensively for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Philips, CBS, and Erato; 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. From 1990 to 1999 he also directed the Orchestra’s summer series at the Mann Center, and led it 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.

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.