Sir John Eliot Gardiner is one of the most versatile conductors of our time. Acknowledged as a key figure in the early music revival, he is the founder and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Alongside the activities with his own ensembles, John Eliot Gardiner appears regularly as guest conductor with the most important European symphony orchestras, including the
The extent of Gardiner’s repertoire is illustrated by over 250 recordings made for major European companies, which have received numerous international awards. Most recently, he has been releasing recordings of the 2000 Bach Cantata Pilgrimage and of Brahms symphonies on his record label, Soli Deo Gloria.
His most recent projects with the Monteverdi ensembles include European tours of Monteverdi’s Vespers (1610), Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Haydn’s oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. He is currently continuing a five-year collaboration with the Opéra Comique in Paris, along with the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Away from his own ensembles, John Eliot Gardiner is involved in a three-year Beethoven cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra. Future engagements include re-invitations to Covent Garden, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre National de France and the Czech Philharmonic.
In 1987 John Eliot Gardiner received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lyon. He was nominated Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1996, and Chevalier de la Légion d‘Honneur in 2010. 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. In 2008 he was he was awarded the Royal Academy of Music/ Kohn Foundation’s prestigious Bach Prize.
