DuncanWard

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Conductor
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News

  • 16 November 2023

    Duncan Ward conducts two programmes with London Symphony Orchestra

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  • 22 September 2023

    Duncan Ward opens philharmonie zuidnederland’s tenth anniversary season

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  • 05 April 2023

    Duncan Ward extends contract with philharmonie zuidnederland

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  • 16 December 2022

    Duncan Ward debuts at the Metropolitan Opera

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  • 19 March 2021

    Duncan Ward conducts Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

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  • 26 February 2021

    Duncan Ward returns to London Symphony Orchestra

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  • 27 October 2020

    Duncan Ward appointed chief conductor of the philharmonie zuidnederland

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  • 23 January 2020

    Festival d’Aix appoints Duncan Ward as Music Director of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra Symphonic sessions

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Press

  • Duncan Ward and Philzuid performing Strauss' 'Alpine Symphony'

    Eurogress Aachen
    Mar 2024

    • Duncan Ward gelang eine Darstellung, die in ihrem Gesamtauf-riss und in ihrer dynamischen Differenzierung rundum überzeugte. Duncan Ward succeeded in creating a performance that was completely convincing in its overall outline and dynamic differentiation.

    • Chef-dirigent Duncan Ward blaast lucht, zwier en lading in de karrenvracht aan noten, en blijkt een uitstekend inzicht in de partituur te hebben. Daarnaast heeft hij elastiek aan zijn stok: het kinderlijke gemak waarmee hij de monsterbezetting voortstuwt of afremt, ondertussen verschillende lijnen tot een sluitend vlechtwerk verbindend, is indrukwekkend. Chief conductor Duncan Ward breathes air, panache and charge into the cartload of notes, and appears to have an excellent understanding of the score. He also has elastic on his baton: the childlike ease with which he propels or slows down the monster line-up, meanwhile linking various lines into a conclusive weave, is impressive.

    • ★★★★☆ Ward...licht in glasheldere momenten nooit eerder opgevallen orkestileuren uit: een tere hobo, fluisterende altviolen Ward...illuminates in crystal-clear moments never before noticed orchestral figures: a delicate oboe, whispering violas.

  • Musica Viva with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

    Herkulessaal Der Residenz
    Feb 2024

    • 'Der starke Eindruck, den der Solist hinterlässt, verdankt sich zu einem Gutteil der Leistung des Orchesters: Duncan Ward versteht sich nicht nur auf die kinetischen Schübe bei Djordjević und Borboudakis. Er vermochte schon ganz am Anfang, bei „Central Park In The Dark“ von Charles Ives, den vibratoarmen Klang der Streicher als eine Art von potentieller Energie zu begreifen, die „es“ buchstäblich „in sich“ hat. Doch am Ende, in Gubaidulinas Bratschenkonzert, beeindrucken vor allem die gestische Präzision und Plastizität, mit denen Ward den Orchesterrefrain als stockend-stammelnden Chorreigen modelliert. Immer wieder durchsetzt von den vier fallenden Tönen (e)S-D-C-H, eigentlich die Initialen von Dmitri Schostakowitsch, hier aber zu einer Intervallfolge vertauscht, wie sie schon Ravel in seiner „Rapsodie espagnole“ als halb sephardische, halb maurische Signatur benutzte, entsteht durch Wards Formung der Eindruck eines beklommenen, schockzerschossenen Gebets.' The strong impression that the soloist leaves is due in large part to the performance of the orchestra: Duncan Ward not only understands the kinetic thrusts of Djordjević and Borboudakis. Right from the start, in “Central Park In The Dark” by Charles Ives, he was able to understand the low-vibrato sound of the strings as a kind of potential energy that literally has “it” in it. But at the end, in Gubaidulina's viola concerto, what is particularly impressive is the gestural precision and plasticity with which Ward models the orchestral refrain as a halting, stammering choral dance. Interspersed again and again with the four falling tones (e)S-D-C-H, actually the initials of Dmitri Shostakovich, but here swapped to form an interval sequence, as Ravel used in his “Rapsodie espagnole” as a half-Sephardic, half-Moorish signature, is created through Ward's shaping the impression of an anxious, shocked prayer.

  • The Guardian: LSO and Isabelle Faust, Duncan Ward conducts.

    Barbican Hall
    Nov 2023

    • ★★★★☆ The affinity for the French repertoire that Ward had already shown in the Chausson was underlined in the fine performance of Debussy’s La Mer that closed the concert... the first movement’s dawn-to-noon progression was superbly paced, and the final movement was equally convincing, every fleck of orchestral colour perfectly touched in.

  • LSO and Isabelle Faust, Duncan Ward conducts.

    Barbican Hall
    Nov 2023

    • ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ An unhackneyed programme of colourful works proved to be a refreshing introduction to the musical world of conductor, Duncan Ward, and with a very responsive London Symphony Orchestra, developing into an evening to raise the spirits. It was in the performance of Debussy’s La Mer that Ward and the LSO found another level. In a work that is notoriously hard to fully do justice to, the imperative is to find the balance between the poetic or ‘impressionistic’ without diluting the full excitement of Debussy's superb orchestral writing. Ward pressed all the right buttons and appeared to have the LSO totally in his thrall. The wonderful ‘noon’ passage at the end of De l'aube à midi sur la mer has never sounded more thrilling and mysterious, while the palpable image of splashing waves in Jeux de vagues, was breathtaking. In the Dialogue du vent et de la mer, the sense of the danger and power of the sea was especially vivid, leading to glorious and satisfying final flourish. A benchmark performance of a much loved masterpiece.

  • LSO and Abel Selaocoe, Duncan Ward conducts.

    Barbican Hall
    Nov 2023

    • ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Charismatic conductor Duncan Ward, as attractive in presenting the works as in sinuously conducting them, would seem to have played a major part in the programming.

  • Album Review: Béla Bartók: Dance Suite - Anders Hillborg: Peacock Tales - Claude Debussy: La mer

    Nov 2023

    • Orchestra: Philzuid Saxophone: Valentine Michaud '...het orkest bloeit onder de Engelse chef-dirigent Duncan Ward.' ...the orchestra is thriving under English chief conductor Duncan Ward. '...zijn details in Debussy’s La mer mooi uitgelicht, zoals de houtblazers aan het begin, boven de diepe harpakkoorden. Wanneer viool, fluit of hobo zich losmaken, weerkaatsen de melodieën als lichtstralen op de golvende bassen.' ...details in Debussy's 'La Mer' beautifully highlighted, such as the woodwinds at the beginning, above the deep harp chords. When violin, flute or oboe break free, the melodies echo like rays of light on the undulating basses.

  • Season Opening Concert - Philzuid

    Theater aan het Vrijthof
    Sep 2023

    • 'Het beste van de avond zit in Ravels 2e Suite uit Daphnis et Cloé, het ballet dat de Fransegrootmeester in 1912 voor de fameuze Ballets Russes van Sergej Diaghilev schreef. Vooral in deslotdans (de extatische Danse Générale) bewijstchef-dirigent Duncan Ward andermaal zijnuitzonderlijke klasse: met puntige gebaren, losboetseerwerk, en vibraties vanuit de heupenhaalt hij het maximum uit de jubilaris. Hetraderwerk gonst, de dynamiek golft, de extasegloeit.' The best of the evening is Ravel's 2nd Suite from Daphnis et Cloé, the ballet that the French grandmaster wrote in 1912 for Sergei Diaghilev's famous Ballets Russes. Especially in the final dance (the ecstatic Danse Générale), chief conductor Duncan Ward once again proves his exceptional class: with pointed gestures, loose modeling and vibrations from the hips, he gets the most out of the jubilee. The gears hum, the dynamics undulate, the ecstasy glows.

  • Mediterranean Youth Orchestra

    Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
    Jul 2023

    • les membres de l’orchestre travaillent depuis quelques années déjà sous la direction musicale de Duncan Ward qui, à 34 ans, est en osmose parfaite avec l’ensemble. The members of the orchestra have been working for several years now under the musical direction of Duncan Ward who, at 34, is in perfect osmosis with the ensemble.

  • Mediterranean Youth Orchestra - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

    Grand Théâtre de Provence
    Nov 2023

    • Ce dimanche soir au Grand Théâtre de Provence, l’Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée a offert toute la diversité de son talent sous la houlette de Duncan Ward. This Sunday evening at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée offered the full range of its talent under the baton of Duncan Ward.

  • Mediterranean Youth Orchestra - Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

    Grand Théâtre de Provence
    Nov 2023

    • A la fin, la salle fut debout, applaudissant à tout rompre cette réalisation musicale et fraternelle qui respirait la joie de vivre et qui marquera cette édition du festival. At the end, the audience was on its feet, applauding this musical and fraternal achievement that exuded joie de vivre and will mark this edition of the festival.

  • Momentum: Respighi • Walton

    Album Review
    Jul 2023

    • Conductor Duncan Ward and the Royal Philharmonic play a major part in the success of the interpretation. The playing is palpably edge-of-seat, closely mirroring Petrova’s mercurial shifts of mood and emphasis, and there’s not a dead bar of ‘accompaniment’ in the entire performance. ★★★★★

  • Momentum: Respighi • Walton

    Album Review
    Jul 2023

    • The Royal Philharmonic under Duncan Ward are on their toes throughout and an infectious energy is passed back and forth between soloist and orchestra.

  • Debussy, Berio, Janacek - Philzuid

    Philharmonie Cologne
    Apr 2023

    • Chief conductor Duncan Ward enjoys the unpredictability of Claude Debussy's ballet music Jeux. He strings expectation, playfulness and exuberance together in a fascinating and spontaneous story… In Debussy's Prélude a l'après-midi d'un faune, fragrant flutes and drawling oboes rise from a subtly mottled sound bed. Leos Janacek's symphonic rhapsody about the Cossack leader Taras Bulba is bloody theatre, with a formidable brass band and galloping strings. Ward gives direction and intention to each passage. Fragile hope resounds in the (doomed) music of love. The enemy celebrates a victory over the Cossacks with a tight, frenzied mazurka. The magnificent finale, carried by the hall organ, really feels like a final destination.

  • Sunday Concert with Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

    Kölner Philharmonie
    Apr 2023

    • ‚Die Bremer fühten das unter Leitung des junges britischen Dirigenten Duncan Ward mit ebensoviel virtuosen Schliff vie subtiler Charakterisierung vor.‘ The Bremen ensemble, under the direction of the young British conductor Duncan Ward, performed this with just as much virtuoso polish as subtle characterization. ‚Das alles funkzionierte mit einer entspannten Reibungslosigkeit, die dem Maestro sein Amt erkennbar leichtmache. Er musste sich weder um Feinabstimmung noch um Klangbalance kummern und konnte die Truppe gleichsam mit dem kleinen Finger durch die Partituren führen.‘ It all worked with a relaxed smoothness that made the maestro's job recognizably easy. He didn't have to worry about fine-tuning or tonal balance and was able to drive the troupe through the scores with his little finger, as it were.

      • Stefan Rütter, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
      • 18 April 2023

  • Bartok, Poulenc, Beethoven - Philzuid

    Theater aan het Vrijthof
    Jan 2023

    • Bartók's highly complex dance suite, which uses South-Eastern European and even Arabic folklore as the thematic source of inspiration, with its permanent changes in meter and tempo, places the highest demands on the orchestra and conductor, which were mastered here with flying colors. The vitality and harmonic hardness of this music, with its sometimes garish instrumentation, found a sovereign, well-controlled reproduction. Duncan Ward played Beethoven's 7th symphony with a relatively large cast, but with reduced vibrato in the strings. The entire interpretation was characterized by an almost exuberant youthful impetus, which reached its climax in the finale. Ward let the movements follow each other "attacca" without a break, building up a great arc of tension. As an encore, the orchestra and conductor offered the enthusiastically applauding audience a relaxed musical Slavonic dance by Antonin Dvorak.

  • Haydn 'The Seasons' - Philzuid

    Theater aan het Vrijthof
    Jan 2023

    • It is made for Ward, who, visibly in his element, blows air into the 222-year-old score with a springy, dancing baton. Choir and orchestra make top-notch music, the three soloists stand their ground, and the whole regularly rises above itself.

  • Haydn 'The Seasons' - Philzuid

    Theater aan het Vrijthof
    Jan 2023

    • Super level…what you especially take with you: what a good move Duncan Ward has been from philzuid as a fresh chef. He is exactly what the orchestra needs. He dictates the chorus precisely, and he leads the orchestra in fluid movements. He hardly indicates dynamics, he rightly trusts his musicians in this. He knows that philzuid needs something else: lines, curves, phrasing. The orchestra swallows them up. Even in the greatest outbursts, he does not raise a hand (not: 'hard!'), but indicates the arc of tension ('over there!').

  • Milhaud: La création du monde - Koechlin: Vers la voûte étoilée - Ward: Fumes - Elgar: Enigma Variations

    Album Review
    Nov 2022

    • This is audibly a soloistic performance of Milhaud’s La création du monde, given the timbral separation of the ensemble and the unremitting clarity of its sound

  • Milhau d: La création du monde - Koechlin: Vers la voûte étoilée - Ward: Fumes - Elgar: Enigma Variations

    Album Review
    Nov 2022

    • Duncan Ward’s Philharmonie Zuidnederland pace and balance these wide-eyed works admirably. ★★★★☆

      • BBC Music Magazine
      • 01 December 2022

  • Mozart, Allegri

    Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
    Oct 2022

    • Der auf dem Podium ungemein jugendlich wirkende Dirigent Duncan Ward inspiriert seine Instrumentalisten zu einem sehr detailreichen, rhyth- misch lebendigem Musizieren bei stets gewahrter Transparenz…Viele Details der Partitur meint man, ganz neu zu hören." "Ward ist ein Dirigent, der seine musikalischen Mitstreiter zu nie nachlassender Konzentration, ebenso aber auch zu ungemein lebendigem, die Tempi dabei virtuos anziehenden Musizieren anhält…Die Souveränität, mit der hier unter der stets die Übersicht wahrenden Leitung von Duncan Ward agiert wird, bleibt Mittel zum Zweck. Fröhlichkeit und Tiefe des Ausdrucks sind hier keine Gegenpo- le, sondern erklingen als Einheit, die die Größe dieser Kompositionen Mozarts unterstreicht. The conductor Duncan Ward, who appears extremely youthful on the podium, inspires his instrumentalists to make music in a very detailed, rhythmically lively manner while maintaining transparency ... Many details of the score are thought to be heard in a completely new way." "Ward is a conductor who encourages his musical colleagues to never lose concentration, but also to extremely lively, virtuoso tempi-making music ... The sovereignty with which Duncan Ward always maintains an overview remains a means for the purpose. Happiness and depth of expression are not opposites here, but sound as a unity that underlines the greatness of these compositions by Mozart.

  • Haydn, Jeths, Ravel and Bartok - Philzuid

    Muziekgebouw Frits Philips Eindhoven
    Sep 2023

    • Hij brengt een totaal andere energie mee dan zijn voorgangers. Hangt er om veel dirigenten iets magisch of mythisch, al dan niet zelf gecreëerd, om Ward hangt de prettige aura van jeugdig enthousiasme, levendigheid en, heel belangrijk, benaderbaarheid. He brings with him a completely different energy than his predecessors. While there is something magical or mythical about many conductors, whether or not self-created, Ward has the pleasant aura of youthful enthusiasm, liveliness and, most importantly, approachability.

  • Mahler, Beethoven and Brahms - Philzuid

    Muziekgebouw Frits Philips Eindhoven
    Oct 2021

    • De nieuwe gezagvoerder Duncan Ward oogstte bewondering voor een bruisende Brahms Drie. Met ferme penseelstreken zette hij de imposante gigantische symfonie neer, de contouren klonken markant en meeslepend...Wel een duidelijk visitekaartje van de levendige en energieke dirigent: hij is muzikaal bevlogen en weet van aanpakken. Het concert begon met een Mahler-arrangement van Britten: sfeervol en mooi." “New Captain Duncan Ward admired a vibrant Brahms Three. With firm brushstrokes he set down the imposing gigantic symphony, the contours sounded striking and compelling... A clear calling card for the lively and energetic conductor: he is musically inspired and knows how to get things done. The concert started with a Mahler arrangement by Britten: atmospheric and beautiful. The concert started with a Mahler arrangement by Britten: atmospheric and beautiful.

  • Prokofiev and Elgar - Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya & Sheku Kanneh-Mason

    Barcelona Auditorium
    Sep 2021

    • Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Notthingham, 1999) and Duncan Ward (Kent, 1989) are the musicians who complete the art record of this first production of the symphonic formation. Both, British and with a dazzling career, will contribute to the stage of the Sala Pau Casals the passionate, intense, exciting spirit that, as we pointed out at the beginning, is necessary for us to understand what we call "love" and "hate" which unites us as a society, which makes us more human.

  • Smetana, Dvořák, Mozart & Brahms - Klosters Festival

    Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
    Aug 2021

    • So schien sich die kraftvolle Musikalität des jungen britischen Dirigenten Duncan Ward, der kurzfristig für Maxim Emelyanychev eingesprungen war, direkt auf die äusserst präzis agierende Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen […] The powerful musicality of the young British conductor Duncan Ward, who stepped in for Maxim Emelyanychev at short notice, seemed to be transferred directly to the extremely precise Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen […]