Donald Runnicles

What strikes me about Donald Runnicles is the sheer breadth of his footprint across the opera and orchestral world. The San Francisco Opera, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Atlanta, St. Luke's in New York, Berlin's Deutsche Oper later on. That is a conductor who clearly thrives moving between continents and repertoires rather than planting one flag. The Scottish roots and the British honours, all the way up to a knighthood, tell me his peers and country hold him in real esteem. He is one of those names casual fans may not know, yet ask any serious opera-goer and the respect is immediate.

Sir Donald Cameron Runnicles (born 16 November 1954) is a Scottish conductor. Runnicles has served as music director of the San Francisco Opera, principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, principal conductor of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, and chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Name (English)

Donald Runnicles

Name (Japanese)

ドナルド・ラニクルズ

Reading

どなるど・らにくるず

Born

November 16, 1954 (age 71)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Horse

Origin

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Blood type

Private

Height

Private

Agency

Private

Occupation

conductor / music director / musician / chapelmaster / pianist

Elementary school

Private

Junior high

Private

High school

Private

University

St John's College

Awards & achievements

• Commander of the Order of the British Empire
• Officer of the Order of the British Empire
• Knight Bachelor

Spouse

Private

Children

Private

Parents

Private

Siblings

Private

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%89%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A9%E3%83%8B%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AB%E3%82%BA

Tags

• conductor
• music director
• musician

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.