Finnegan Downie Dear
British conductor Finnegan Downie Dear has established an international presence through his work across both symphonic and operatic repertoire, developing close relationships with leading orchestras and opera houses throughout Europe and beyond.
Highlights of Finnegan Downie Dear’s 2026/27 season include his debut at the Opéra national de Paris, where he conducts a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Following his subscription debut with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden last season, he returns to Dresden to make his Semperoper debut with Beethoven’s Fidelio as part of the Beethoven 200 celebrations. He also returns to Australia to make his Opera Australia debut with a new production of Puccini’s La bohème.
On the concert platform, Downie Dear returns to Camerata Salzburg for two concert tours, as well as to regular partners including the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Västerås Sinfonietta, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic and Athens State Orchestra. He also makes his debuts with Les Siècles at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in an all-Beethoven programme and with the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice.
Downie Dear is a regular guest at the Berlin State Opera, where he has conducted productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Věc Makropulos and The Turn of the Screw. He has also led numerous concerts with the Staatskapelle Berlin, in repertoire ranging from Schubert and Ravel to Kurtág, Benjamin and Abrahamsen.
Recent symphonic highlights include an all-Beethoven programme with the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble on tour to Baden-Baden and the Elbphilharmonie, returns to the Bremer Philharmoniker and Kammerakademie Potsdam, and debuts with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra. He has previously conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the DSO Berlin, the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Korean National Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, where he will return later in 2027. Among the soloists he has worked with are Kirill Gerstein, Mikhail Pletnev, Paul Lewis, Steven Osborne, Gil Shaham, Isabelle Faust, Veronika Eberle, James Ehnes and Gautier Capuçon.
His recent opera engagements include appearances with The Royal Ballet and Opera (Die Zauberflöte, Alice’s Adventures Underground), Staatsoper Hamburg (Eugene Onegin, Falstaff), Opéra de Lyon (Billy Budd), Theater an der Wien (Miroslav Srnka’s Voice Killer), Korean National Opera (Hänsel und Gretel) and Polish National Opera (Die tote Stadt). In 2026, he led the Philharmonia Orchestra at Garsington Opera in Der Rosenkavalier. Previous festival appearances include the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, where he conducted Oliver Leith’s acclaimed The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor, as well as the Salzburg Easter Festival and Tokyo Spring Festival.
Finnegan Downie Dear is the Artistic Director of Shadwell Opera, a London-based opera company dedicated to contemporary British repertoire and experimental operatic forms. Their production of Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are toured the Mariinsky Theatre in 2019 and Bamberg in 2022, the latter in partnership with the Bamberg Symphony. In 2025 they gave the debut of Isabella Gellis’ The Devil’s Den in collaboration with Opera North; in 2027 they will present their next commission in partnership with the Britten Pears Foundation at Snape Maltings.
Born in London, Downie Dear graduated with distinction in musicology from the University of Cambridge and in piano from the Royal Academy of Music. He came to international attention in 2020 when he was awarded First Prize at the International Mahler Competition of the Bamberger Symphoniker.