Well known for the power, clarity, and depth of intellectual and emotional understanding of his interpretations, particularly of Mahler’s works, Jonathan Nott was invited in 2014 to conduct the musicians of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in a performance of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. The result of this very fruitful first meeting was his immediate appointment in January 2017 as Music and Artistic Director: a collaboration which has recently been renewed for an indefinite period beginning in September 2021.

This new perspective takes the acknowledged Genevan roots of the orchestra as international ambassadors – more recently Spain (2017 & 2022), South America (2018) and Asia (2019) – and adds a new, combined mandate to bring classical music to all inhabitants of the region.

Wishing to strengthen the already close link between the OSR and the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Jonathan Nott has conducted a new production of Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia (2017), a live-streaming production of Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande (2021) and, more recently, Wagner Parsifal produced by Michael Thalheimer (2023). Future projects include a postponed production due to the pandemic: Saint François d’Assise produced by Adel Abdessemed.

He studied musical analysis and composition at the University of Cambridge as a choral scholar at St. John’s College; singing and flute at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester; conducting at the National Opera Studio in London. His conducting career began at the opera houses in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, developing a repertoire spanning the whole gamut of theatrical styles: all the major works of the operatic repertoire (including Wagner’s complete Ring cycle), Sondheim, contemporary opera and ballet.

His passion for contemporary music spawned a close relationship with Ensemble Modern, and forged long-standing artistic and personal collaborations with composers of the ‘60s avant-garde, György Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, Karlheinz Stockhausen as well as most of the composers of his own generation.

The year 1997 marked the beginning of a special relationship with Switzerland: in the five years as principal conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra he took an active part in the inaugural period of the new KKL, and 2007 saw the start of a major collaboration with the Lucerne Festival: conducting Boulez Répons with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, of which he was the Music Director from 2000 to 2003, « artiste étoile » in 2007, concert performances of  Wagner’s Ring cycle in 2013, Verdi’s Falstaff in 2015 –  the latter two both with the Bamberg Symphony, as well as one concert with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in 2018.

2022 will see a first collaboration with the Orchester der Lucerne Festival Alumni.

Jonathan Nott's collaboration with the OSR has been extended until the beginning of 2026.