Dennis Russel Davies, born in Toledo (Ohio) in 1944, studied piano and conducting at the Julliard School of Music in New York. His labour as conductor, pianist and chamber musician is noted by an extremely wide repertoire, covering music all the way from the baroque period to contemporary composers. 

He is considered to be one of the most innovative and venturesome conductors, and has defied and inspired multiple halls at both sides of the Atlantic. He is well known for his enthralling and perfectly structured concert programs, and for having a close work relationship with many composers such as Luciano Berio, John Cage, Philip Glass, Heinz Winbeck, Aaron Copland, Hans Werner Henze or Michael Nyman.

Davies has served as Music Director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Conductor of the American Composers Orchestra from New York, Staatsoper Stuttgart Musical Director, Beethovenhalle Orchestra Conductor, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra Conductor, Musical Director of the Bonn Opera, and Musical Director of the International Beethoven Festival. He has also been conductor of the Radio- Symphonieorchester in Viena.

In 1997, he started teaching at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and was named Conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz. In addition to this, since 2002 he is Opera Conductor of the Landestheater in Linz.

Dennis Russel Davies has been invited to conduct the most renowned orchestras around the globe, such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmnoiker, Filarmonica della Scala in Milan, Münchner Philharmnoiker, Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam or the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

After his debut in the Bayreuth Festival in 1978, his operatic career has covered conducting in the Salzburg Festival and in the most prestigious opera houses such as the Lincoln Center Festival in New York, the Houston Grand Opera, Hamburgische Staatsoper and, currently, in the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and the Ópera National in Paris.