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Conductor
Daniel Kawka specializes in French and German orchestral music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is often associated with the music of
Wagner,
Richard Strauss,
Ravel, and
Pierre Boulez.
Kawka was born in Firminy, in France's Loire region, in 1959. He studied music and literature in the nearby city of Saint-Etienne, and then enrolled at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, studying a complete range of musical subjects: harmony, counterpoint, composition, conducting, and musicology. Hearing a performance of
Wagner's Parsifal conducted by
Wolfgang Sawallisch in 1979 determined his choice of career, and he was later inspired by
Boulez's chamber song cycle Le Marteau sans maître.
Kawka has referred to
Boulez as a figure "who has best changed the course of history, shifted barriers, and undermined prejudices." He did a written thesis on the music of
Albert Roussel.
Kawka's career has been divided between conducting and musicology; he has served as a professor and the director of research at the Lumière University Lyon 2.
Kawka made an impression in 1992 as the founder of the group
Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain. He has a distinguished record of appearances as a guest conductor of leading orchestras in various countries, including the
St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Seoul National Symphony Orchestra, and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Italy. As an orchestral conductor, he has often led performances of music by
Mahler and
Strauss. He has often conducted opera, including a production of
Wagner's entire Ring Cycle directed by Laurent Joyaux. Since 2011,
Kawka has been the principal conductor of Italy's Orchestra Della Toscana.
Kawka has led various orchestras in recordings for the Stradivarius, Harmonia Mundi, and Col Legno labels, among others. With his
Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, he recorded a chamber transcription of
Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G major. In 2020, he directed the same group in an album of
music by Boulez, including Le Marteau sans maître.