Finnegan Downie Dear - NOSPR

Finnegan Downie Dear came to international attention in 2020, when he was awarded first prize at the Bamberger Symphoniker’s International Mahler Competition. The jury spoke of his ‘rare combination of open heart and brilliant mind’, with ‘an ability to evoke truly magical moments as if there were nothing more natural to do’.

In the 2022/2023 season he will debut at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (The Makropulos Case by Janáček) as well as working with the Staatskapelle Berlin in concert. He will also debut with orchestras including Camerata Salzburg, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and the Adelaide, Baltimore, Bournemouth and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras, as well as returning to the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Recent important engagements include concerts with London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In 2021, he returned to Bamberg for subscription concerts with Thomas Hampson.

In future seasons he will conduct new productions at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Theater an der Wien. Previous opera experience includes Die tote Stadt at Polish National Opera, Hänsel und Gretel at Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Korea National Opera, Le nozze di Figaro at Royal Swedish Opera, Don Giovanni at Nevill Holt Opera and Alice’s Adventures Under Ground at the Royal Opera House.

Since 2014 he has been music director of Shadwell – an East London company that works with exceptional young musicians to champion contemporary British repertoire and experiment with new operatic forms. The company’s production of Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are toured to the Mariinsky Theatre in 2019; and to Bamberg in 2022 for performances with the Bamberger Symphoniker.

Born in London, he graduated with distinction from University of Cambridge (musicology) and the Royal Academy of Music (piano). He subsequently worked as an assistant to Simone Young, Thomas Adès, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding and Richard Baker.