Bernard Haitink

Bernard Johan Herman Haitink (born March 4, 1929) is a Dutch conductor.

Haitink was born in Amsterdam and studied music at the conservatoire there. He played the violin in orchestras before taking courses in conducting under Ferdinand Leitner in 1954 and 1955. He became Second Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Union Orchestra in 1955. He served as chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra (now the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra), from 1961 to 1988 (jointly with Eugen Jochum until 1964), and is now their Honorary Conductor.

He was principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1967 to 1979. Haitink has also been the music director at Glyndebourne Opera from 1978 to 1988 and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1987 to 1998. From 2002 to 2004 he was chief conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle. In April 2006, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced that Haitink would be the CSO's new Principal Conductor beginning with the start of the 2007-2008 season in September 2007. Haitink is an Honorary Member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and serveda as Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1995-2004, when he took on the new title of Conductor Emeritus.

As a guest conductor, the orchestras with which Haitink has appeared the most frequently in the recent past are the Orchestre National de France and London Symphony Orchestra, in addition to his long associations with the Vienna Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestras.

In 1977 he was awarded an honorary knighthood in the Order of the British Empire (KBE) and in 2002 he was created an honorary Companion of Honour (CH).[1]

Haitink has conducted a wide variety of repertoire, with the complete symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler and Dmitri Shostakovich notable among his recordings.

Preceded by Eduard van Beinum	Chief Conductor, Concertgebouw Orchestra 1963–1988	Succeeded by Riccardo Chailly
Preceded by John Pritchard	Principal Conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra 1966–1979	Succeeded by Georg Solti
Preceded by Vittorio Gui	Music Director, Glyndebourne Opera Festival 1978–1988	Succeeded by Andrew Davis
Preceded by Colin Davis	Music Director, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden 1987–2002	Succeeded by Antonio Pappano
Preceded by Colin Davis	Principal Guest Conductor, Boston Symphony Orchestra 1995–2004	Succeeded by none
Preceded by none	Conductor Emeritus, Boston Symphony Orchestra 2004–present	Succeeded by incumbent
Preceded by Giuseppe Sinopoli	Principal Conductor, Dresden Staatskapelle 2002–2004	Succeeded by Fabio Luisi (designate)
Preceded by Daniel Barenboim	Principal Conductor (designate), Chicago Symphony Orchestra 2007–present	Succeeded by incumbent