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The American conductor, David Eric Robertson, was born and raised in Malibu, California, and grew up in a music-loving family. His father was a research scientist at Hughes Laboratory and his mother studied literature, but later had a career as a baker. In grade school, he played French horn and violin, and first conducted at age 12. He later studied horn, composition, and conducting as a college student at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
After his college years, David Robertson began to receive conducting offers in Europe and performed often in both symphonic and operatic repertoire. His early career lectured under the rubric of the U.S. Information Agency in the Middle East and around the world on the subject of music. In 1985, he was appointed resident conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. From 1992 to 2000, he was Music Director of the Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain (EIC), the first American to hold the post. He broadened the EIC's repertoire to include works by composers such as John Adams. In 2000, he was named the Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL) and Artistic Director of Lyon's Auditorium. He was the first individual to serve simultaneously in both capacities and the first American to be appointed to either position. He and the ONL toured the USA in 2003, with concerts in New York City, Seattle, Berkeley, and Los Angeles. He concluded his tenure in Lyon in 2004.
David Robertson's relationship with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) began in January 1999 when he made his first conducting appearance with the orchestra. His second appearance with the SLSO occurred in February 2002 at Carnegie Hall after the SLSO's then-music director Hans Vonk withdrew a few days before the concert due to health problems. Robertson agreed to substitute, and he and the orchestra had only one rehearsal before the concert. He later appeared with the SLSO in March 2003. The SLSO named Robertson its next Music Director in December 2003, effective with the 2005-2006 season. In April 2005, he led the SLSO for the second time in a Carnegie Hall concert, after a labor dispute at the SLSO was resolved. He conducted the SLSO in Carnegie Hall again in November 2005, March and April 2006, and March 2007. He was one of Carnegie Hall's Perspectives artists for the 2005-2006 season, and he curated concerts with the SLSO and other performances with various guest artists and ensembles. Robertson is generally regarded as having restored the SLSO's artistic prominence after the sudden resignation of the prior Music Director Hans Vonk, and the orchestra's labor dispute in the winter of 2005. New concert series begun during his tenure include a group of contemporary music concerts with the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and a series of "Fusion Concerts" at the Touhill Performing Arts Center of the University of Missouri–St. Louis. In September 2006, the SLSO announced the extension of Robertson's contract through 2010, with a clause to allow for yearly renewal. As of November 2009, his SLSO contract was through the 2011-2012 season. Following a subsequent contract renewal through 2014, his SLSO contract was extended, in January 2013, through the 2015-2016 season.c In March 2014, the orchestra and Robertson announced a further extension of his SLSO contract through the 2017-2018 season. In December 2016, the SLSO and Robertson jointly announced an additional one-year extension of his contract through the 2018-2019 season, which was the intended time for the close of his SLSO tenure. However, in June 2017, the orchestra noted an update to Robertson's contract, with a newly scheduled conclusion of his music directorship at the close of the 2017-2018 season, in a reversion of the December 2016 situation. Robertson stood down as SLSO music director in 2018. During his tenure, the SLSO made its first-ever appearance at The Proms in September 2012. With the SLSO, He has conducted several commercial recordings of music of John Adams (composer) for the Nonesuch label.
With SLSO, David Robertson solidified its status as among the nation’s most innovative ensembles, establishing fruitful relationships with a spectrum of artists, and garnering a 2014 Grammy Award for the Nonesuch release of John Adams’ City Noir, in addition to numerous other recordings releases, such as Wynton Marsalis’s Swing Symphony, with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, on Blue Engine Records, and W.A. Mozart's Piano Concertos, No. 17 in G Major K.453 and No. 24 in C Minor K.491, with Orli Shaham, on Canary Classics.
David Robertson holds a rich and enduring collaboration with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and in the Americas conducts many noted ensembles, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Montréal Symphony Orchestra and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP). He has served as a Perspectives Artist at Carnegie Hall, where he has also conducted, among others, The Met Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. He appears regularly with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, and other major European and international orchestras and festivals, ranging from the BBC Proms, to Musica Viva in Munich, to the New Japan Philharmonic and Beijing’s NCPA Orchestra.
With The Metropolitan Opera, David Robertson continues to build upon his deep conducting relationship, which includes James Robinson’s 2019-2020 season opening premier production of Porgy and Bess, and the premiere of Phelim McDermott’s celebrated 2018 production of W.A. Mozart's Così fan tutte, set in Coney Island. Since his 1996 Met Opera debut, Janáček's The Makropulos Case, he has conducted a breathtaking range of projects, including W.A. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2008), Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd (2012), W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (2012); the Met premiere of John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer (October 2014); the 2016 revival of Janáček’s Jenůfa, then its first Met performances in nearly a decade; the premiere production of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys (2013); and many favorites, from to. Robertson conducts at the world’s most prestigious opera houses, including La Scala, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Théâtre du Châtelet, and the San Francisco and Santa Fe Operas.
In February 2005, David Robertson was named the Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) and he assumed thpost later in the year, in parallel with the beginning of his St. Louis tenure. On September 12, 2009, Robertson became the second American conductor and the first standing BBC Symphony Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor to conduct the Last Night of the Proms. He concluded his tenure as BBC Symphony Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor in August 2012. Robertson first guest-conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2003. In 2014, he became the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's Chief Conductor and Artistic Adviser. He concluded his tenure in Sydney in December 2019, following a one-year extension of his contract announced in July 2017.
David Robertson's other work in contemporary music has included serving as Festival Director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra's January 2008 Concrete Frequency Festival, as well as Music Director of the 2008 Ojai Music Festival in Ojai, California.
In February 2018, the Juilliard School announced the appointment of David Robertson as its next Director of Conducting Studies, Distinguished Visiting Faculty, effective with the 2018-2019 academic year. In Fall 2019, he joined the newly formed Tianjin Juilliard Advisory Council, an international body created to guide the emerging Chinese campus of the Juilliard School. He conducts the Juilliard Orchestra annually at Carnegie Hall. He is devoted to supporting young musicians and has worked with students at the festivals of Aspen, Tanglewood, Lucerne, at the Paris Conservatoire, Music Academy of the West, and the National Orchestra Institute. In 2014, he led the Coast to Coast tour of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the USA.
David Robertson has recorded for the Sony Classical, Harmonia Mundi, Naive, EMI/Virgin Classics, Atlantic/Erato, Nuema, Ades Valois, Naxos and Nonesuch labels, featuring the music of such composers as Adams, Benjamin Britten, Pierre Boulez, Carter, Dusapin, Dvorák, Alberto Ginastera, Lalo, Manoury, Milhaud, Reich, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Silvestrov.
David Robertson has been married three times. His third wife is pianist Orli Shaham, the sister of violinist Gil Shaham. Robertson and Orli Shaham first met at a January 1999 SLSO concert, which was the SLSO debut for both of them. They married on January 3, 2003. She is mother to their twin boys, Nathan Glenn, and Alex Jacob, born September 15, 2007. The family makes its home in New York City. Robertson has two grown sons, Peter and Jonathan, from his second marriage to the German writer Ane Dahm.
Honors and awards: David Robertson received the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award in 1997. In December 1999, Musical America named David Robertson Conductor of the Year. He received the 2006 Ditson Conductor's Award from Columbia University for his championing of American music. In April 2010, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. On May 15, 2010, he received the degree Doctor of Music honoris causa from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. In October 2011, he was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture of France. is recording of John Adams' City Noir won a Grammy. Along with Diana Doherty, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Nigel Westlake and Synergy Vocals, Robertson was nominated for the 2019 ARIA Award for Best Classical Album for the album Nigel Westlake: Spirit of the Wild / Steve Reich: The Desert Music. The album is a recording of Nigel Westlake’s Spirit of the Wild and of Steve Reich’s The Desert Music with the latter conducted by Robertson. |
