(Credit: Julian Hargreaves)

The Swedish Radio Orchestra has announced that Daniel Harding will extend his post as music director of the orchestra until 2025.

“From the very beginning of my career as a conductor, I have been surrounded by musicians, collaborators and friends of exceptional generosity, talent and wisdom. I understood very early on that important and lasting musical relationships are forged over many years. 2022 marks my fifteenth birthday as Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. When I arrived in Stockholm in January 2007, none of us could have known how our future would unfold, as musicians, as humans, as individuals and as a group. It is one of the immense satisfactions and inspirations of my musical life that I am still here and still enjoying a honeymoon feeling with these truly exceptional musicians, ”Harding said in an official statement.

“There is no doubt that here in Stockholm, at Berwaldhallen, I found my musical family. The bond between us is immense and the spark we had at the start only seems brighter and more intense. The role of musical director is very important. Week after week, for many years to come, working slowly and patiently with the same musicians to create a sense of musical identity, a sense of priority and perspective, a deep understanding of each other and the music we play, trust and a exchange with an audience. It is a kind of work where the goal is never the concert of the week but the slow and certain construction of something that can only be fully appreciated with hindsight.

Harding previously served as Music Director of the Orchester de Paris and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. The British conductor has performed in operas such as the Teatro alla Scala, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Theater an der Wien, among others.

Harding performs regularly with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Filarmonica della Scala in Milan, among others.