Edward Gardner Named Honorary Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic

Gardner, who recently concluded a nine-year term as the orchestra's Principal Conductor, will continue his relationship with the ensemble

British conductor Edward Gardner has received the title of Honorary Conductor of Norway's Bergen Philharmonic. Gardner has recently come to the end of a nine-season tenure as the orchestra's Principal Conductor, and closed his time with the orchestra with a concert featuring Mahler's Symphony No. 8.

Gardner first worked with the orchestra in 2013, when he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor. Together, they have performed more than 200 concerts, as well as undertaking a series of international tours and making 22 critically acclaimed recordings.

In August 2024, Gardner will take up a new position as Music Director of Den Norske Opera & Ballett, where he has been Artistic Advisor since 2022. He will conduct this group alongside his position as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a role he began in 2021.

Earlier in his career, Gardner spent eight years as Music Director at English National Opera. He has also built a strong relationship with the Metropolitan Opera, where he has conducted productions of The Damnation of Faust, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and Werther.

"It was probably foolhardy to start with that Schoenberg, but putting it at one end of my tenure and Mahler 8 at the other feels extraordinary to me in a good way," Gardner said of the works that bookend his time in Bergen. "These are incredibly significant works, milestones in musical history."

"The choral world is so close to me, and since we have such outstanding choruses in Bergen — as our recent Brahms Requiem showed again — it would be unthinkable for me to not include them in such a celebration."