ThomasSøndergård

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  • Conductor
© Martin Bubandt
© Martin Bubandt

About Thomas

Music Director: Minnesota Orchestra Music Director: Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is the Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra, as well as the Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, following six seasons as their Principal Guest Conductor. Between 2012 and 2018, he served as Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW), after stepping down as Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

With the Minnesota Orchestra in 2025/26, Thomas leads a diverse range of programmes, including the continuation of their Nordic Composers Festival and projects with leading soloists such as Joyce DiDonato, Yo-Yo Ma & Kirill Gerstein. In addition to their Scotland series and recording projects, highlights with the RSNO include leading the closing concert of the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival and extensive tours of Europe & China. Guest conducting for this season will include returns to the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Philharmonia Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony & Oslo Philharmonic, alongside debuting with the Orquestra Sinfònica de Barcelona. Thomas will also sit on the jury of the 2025 London Symphony Orchestra Donatella Flick Conducting Competition.

He has appeared with many notable orchestras in leading European centres, such as Berlin (including Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin), Munich (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk), Zurich (Tonhalle Orchester Zurich), Leipzig (Gewandhausorchester), Paris (Orchestre National de France), London (London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra), Amsterdam and Rotterdam (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic) and is a familiar figure in Scandinavia, with such orchestras as Oslo Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic. North American appearances to date have included the symphony orchestras of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St Louis, Toronto, Atlanta, Montreal, Vancouver, Houston and Seattle. He has also made highly successful tours to China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Thomas is based in Copenhagen

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Season Highlights

Sep 2025
Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis
Minnesota Orchestra Season Opening Programme 1: LEONARD BERNSTEIN : Candide: Overture HECTOR BERLIOZ : Les Nuits d'été Interval GUILLAUME CONNESSON : Céléphaïs, from The Cities of Lovecraft RICHARD STRAUSS : Rosenkavalier Suite Soloist: Joyce DiDonato Programme 2: JOAN TOWER : Made in America STEVE HEITZEG : EcoSaga (Concerto in Three Landscapes) Interval LEONARD BERNSTEIN : Three Meditations from "Mass" BELA BARTOK : Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123 Soloist: Anthony Ross
Oct 2025
Caird Hall, Dundee; Usher Hall, Edinburgh & Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Royal Scottish National Orchestra Season Opening Programme 1 (Dundee) : JOHANNES BRAHMS : Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor Op. 15 Interval FELIX MENDELSSOHN : Symphony No. 3 in A minor 'Scottish' Soloist: Francesco Piemontesi Programme 2 (Edinburgh & Glasgow) : OLIVER KNUSSEN : Flourish with Fireworks MAURICE RAVEL : Piano Concerto in G major Interval GUSTAV MAHLER : Symphony No. 7 Soloist: Francesco Piemontesi
Oct 2025
Various
Royal Scottish National Orchestra | European Tour Performances in : Heilbronn | Eindhoven | Paris | Ljubljana | Salzburg | Zagreb | Antwerp Soloists: Magdalene Ho, Jan Lisiecki & Francesco Piemontesti
Nov 2025
Royal Festival Hall, London
Return to Philharmonia Orchestra RICHARD WAGNER : Prelude & Liebestod (orch only) from Tristan und Isolde RICHARD STRAUSS : Vier Letzte Lieder/Four Last Songs interval PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY : Symphony No. 6 in B minor Op. 74 'Pathétique' Soprano: Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha
Feb 2026
Oslo Konserthus
Return to Oslo Philharmonic ØRJAN MATRE : Lyric Pieces ØRJAN MATRE : Piano Concerto interval RICHARD STRAUSS : Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 Soloist: Leif Ove Andsnes
Apr 2026
L'Auditori, Barcelona
Orquestra Sinfònica de Barcelona Debut CLAUDE DEBUSSY : Petite Suite CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS : Violin Concerto No.3 interval CLAUDE DEBUSSY : Images pour orchestre L.122 Soloist: Daishin Kashimoto

Photos

News

Press

  • Elektra: Deutsche Oper Berlin

    Deutsche Oper Berlin
    Apr 2025
    • [...] I was blown away by the fantastic sound that Thomas Söndergard unleashed with the orchestra: precise, sharply contoured, audible even in the wildest fortissimo, atmospherically dense, pulsating with incredible energy.

  • RSNO: Dvorak Symphony No. 6

    Edinburgh
    Nov 2023
    • "Thomas Søndergård shaped the opening movement with a gorgeous sense of heft, with the main theme slowly and beautifully filling out but always moving forwards purposefully. The sweet, sunlit slow movement benefited from drop-dead-gorgeous string tone, and a lucidly played Trio sat in the middle of a storming Furiant."

  • Minnesota Orchestra: Music Director Inaugural Concerts

    Minneapolis
    Sep 2023
    • "It was stirring at the start, as effervescent as champagne at its center, and as big and bold as one could wish in its almost-hourlong finale. And throughout it all, Søndergård seemed a leader with firm ideas about what he wanted from the music and a very graceful way of communicating them. When Søndergård and the orchestra reached the summit at the center of the piece, it was pure ecstatic triumph. And what a storm the orchestra summoned up, especially in the percussion section, a group that may be forging a special connection with the conductor, as that's the part of the orchestra in which he launched his professional career."

      • Star Tribune
      • 21 September 2023
  • RSNO: Sibelius, Berlioz and Sørensen

    Glasgow
    Nov 2021
    • ★★★★★ "The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s music director Thomas Søndergård invited us to join him on an emotionally intense programme of music depicting vivid memories of times and places, from Bert Sørensen’s childhood landscapes through a journey of love and loss from Berlioz and rounding off with an astonishing performance of a favourite Sibelius symphony." [In the Sørensen] "Søndergård brought order to the pungent chaos, carefully taming the vivid frenzy. A soft oboe solo brought us back to the lone violin as the music slowly drifted into a deep rural silence." [In the Berlioz] "Søndergård balanced his forces sensitively, allowing them to swell out in passionate moments but never overwhelming his singer even with Morison in her darkest, lower register." [Sibelius] "It is a concert hall favourite, but Søndergård and the orchestra gave a performance as if this was a newly discovered score with phrasing and dynamics detailing far corners of the work."