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SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER
John Eliot Gardiner, one of the most versatile conductors of our time, is acknowledged as a key figure in
the early music revival. Founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque
Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner also appears regularly
with the most important European symphony orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra,
Royal Concertgebouw and Czech Philharmonic.
The extent of John Eliot Gardiner’s repertoire is illustrated in over 250 recordings made for major
European record companies (including Deutsche Grammophon and Philips Classics), which have
received numerous international awards. Over the years Gardiner has won more Gramophone awards
than any other artist. Recordings include the six late masses by Haydn as well as the Santiago a Cappella
CD, released on Emarcy to coincide with his Santiago Pilgrimage tour in summer 2004. Most recently
he has released recordings of the Bach Cantatas from the Bach Pilgrimage tour of 2000, on his own
record label Soli Deo Gloria. The first release was awarded Gramophone Record of the year in 2005.
December 2007 saw the start of an exciting collaboration between the Monteverdi Choir and ORR with
Opéra Comique, Paris with Chabrier's L' Étoile. Following productions of Carmen and Pelléas et
Mélisande over past two seasons, they will perform Weber's Le Freyschuetz in Spring 2011. Other
recent Monteverdi highlights have included an extensive major Brahms cycle covering London, Paris,
Amsterdam, Cologne, Frankfurt, Madrid and Brussels, and a tour of the USA and Europe of Haydn's
two great oratorios Die Jahreszeiten and Die Schöpfung and of Bach's Mass in B Minor. At the BBC
Proms in 2010, John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Monteverdi Choir and EBS in the Monteverdi Vespers
of 1610 and the EBS in two performances of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.
As guest conductor, John Eliot Gardiner continues his close relationship with the London Symphony
Orchestra. In Spring 2010 they completed a three-year Beethoven cycle taking in performances in the
UK, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich and Madrid. During the 10/11 season he tours with the LSO and returns
to the Czech Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre National de France and Chicago
Symphony. Further ahead he conducts the Bayerischer Rundfunk and Mahler Chamber Orchestra and
following the success of Simon Boccanegra has been re-invited to the Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden for productions of Rigoletto and The Marriage of Figaro.
In 1987 John Eliot Gardiner received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lyon, and in 1996
he was nominated Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1992 he became an Honorary
Fellow of both King's College, London, and the Royal Academy of Music. He received a knighthood in
the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours List and in April 2008 he was awarded the Royal Academy of
Music / Kohn Foundation's prestigious Bach Prize.
September 2010
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