Finnegan Downie Dear

Finnegan came to international attention in 2020, when he was awarded first prize at the Bamberger Symphoniker’s International Mahler Competition. The jury spoke of his ‘rare combination of open heart and brilliant mind’, with ‘an ability to evoke truly magical moments as if there were nothing more natural to do’.

Recent concert highlights include performances with the Staatskapelle Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Athens State Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonieorchester Basel. Future plans include returns to Berlin, Salzburg, Athens and Poland, as well as making debuts with Staatskapelle Dresden, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Balthazar Neumann Orchestra and Sydney Symphony, with soloists including Gil Shaham, Isabelle Faust, Kirill Gerstein, Veronika Eberle and James Ehnes.

His debut with the Staatsoper Berlin (The Makropulos Case) resulted in immediate reinvitations for numerous opera productions and concert programmes. This season includes a concert programme of Kurtag and Schubert, and performances of Le nozze di Figaro. Elsewhere, he has had equally successful debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Gerald Barry Alice’s Adventures Underground) and at the Hamburg Staatsoper (Eugene Onegin); he soon returns to Covent Garden to conduct Hansel and Gretel and to Hamburg for FalstaƯ. He will make first appearances at Garsington Opera, (Der Rosenkavalier), Theater an der Wien (in a world premiere by Miroslav Srnka), Victorian Opera (Katya Kabanova) and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (Billy Budd).

Since 2014 Finnegan has been Music Director of Shadwell – an East London company that works with exceptional young musicians to champion contemporary British repertoire and experiment with new operatic forms. The company’s production of Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are toured to the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg in 2019; and to Bamberg in 2022 for performances with the Bamberger Symphoniker, and this summer they commissioned and gave the world premiere of Isabella Gellis’ chamber opera, The Devil’s Den.

Born in London, Finnegan graduated with distinction from Cambridge University (musicology) and the Royal Academy of Music (piano). He subsequently worked as an assistant to Simone Young, Thomas Adès, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding and Richard Baker.