In recent years Douglas has held the positions of Chief Conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, Music Director of Manchester Camerata, Principal Guest Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Partner of St Paul Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of City of London Sinfonia.
Douglas was a founder member and principal oboist of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe until 2002 when he stopped playing to concentrate on conducting. He has also conducted them on several occasions.
Over recent years in the UK Douglas Boyd has conducted all the BBC Orchestras, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Northern Sinfonia. On the continent he has worked with, amongst others, the Bergen Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Basel Sinfoniieorchester, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, as well as Munich Chamber Orchestra and Kammerakademie Potsdam.
Further afield he has conducted the Nagoya Symphony Orchestra in Japan, Hong Kong Philharmonic and with many of the symphony orchestras in Australia including a complete cycle of Beethoven Symphonies with the Melbourne Symphony, returning for the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with Paul Lewis.
His regular North American appearances have included concerts with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Pacific and Seattle Symphony Orchestras. In Canada he has appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and National Arts Orchestra in Ottawa.
On the concert platform Douglas regularly works with soloists including Jonathan Biss, Steven Isserlis, Anthony Marwood, Viktoria Mulova, Fazil Say, András Schiff, Mark Padmore, Emmanuel Pahud and Alissa Weilerstein.
Operatic engagements have included Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne Opera on Tour, Salieri’s La Grotto di Tronfonio for Zürich Opera and Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito with Opera North. Productions he has conducted for Garsington Opera include Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan Tutte, Eugene Onegin, Silver Birch (Roxanna Panufnik, world premiere),concert performances of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Haydn’s The Creation with Ballet Rambert, and most recently Richard Strauss’s Capriccio.
Douglas Boyd’s recording of the Bach Concerti for DG marked his recording debut as director/soloist and he has since gone on to build an extensive discography. His recordings as a conductor with Manchester Camerata of the complete Beethoven Symphonies and Mahler Symphony No 4 (on Avie) and Das Lied von der Erde have received universal critical acclaim. He has also recorded Schubert Symphonies with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra on their own label as well as several recordings with Musikkollegium Winterthur.
In addition to his concerts with L’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris both in Paris and on tour, recent and future highlights include concerts with the Aalborg Symfoniorkester, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, The Minnesota Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Orquestra Sinfonica do Porto Casa da Música, Philharmonia Orchestra and Tasmania and West Australia Symphony Orchestras.
