Thomas Dausgaard is Chief Conductor Designate of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Symphony, Honorary Conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana (ORT), and Honorary Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, having previously served as its Principal Conductor from 2004–2011.
He is renowned for his creativity and innovation in programming, the excitement of his live performances, and his extensive catalogue of critically-acclaimed recordings.
He regularly appears with many of the world’s leading orchestras including in Europe the Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He began his North American career assisting Seiji Ozawa, and has since appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Washington National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Houston Symphony, Toronto Symphony and the Montreal Symphony. He is also a regular visitor to Asia and Australia, appearing in recent seasons with the New Japan Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Sydney and Melbourne Symphonies. Festival appearances have included the BBC Proms, the Salzburg Festival, Mostly Mozart and Tanglewood.
As a recording artist, he enjoys long-standing relationships with the BIS and Da Capo labels and has made well over 50 CDs, including complete cycles of symphonies by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Rued Langgaard. “Opening Doors”, his ongoing series for BIS with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, has consistently won praise for performances of 19th-century repertoire more usually associated with symphony orchestras. Future recording plans include a Brahms cycle for BIS, and discs for Da Capo of the works of Pelle Gundmundsen-Homgreen with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and works by Bent Sørensen with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
He has been awarded the Cross of Chivalry by the Queen of Denmark, and elected to the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden. His interests beyond music are wide-ranging, and include a fascination with the life and culture of remote communities: he has visited head-hunting tribes in Borneo, volunteered as a farmer in China and stayed with villagers on an island in the South Pacific. Currently he lives in Denmark with his family.