Dresden Philharmonic Names Next Principal Guest Conductor

Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund will assume the role as of the 2025/26 concert season

Tabita Berglund has been selected as Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic beginning in the 2025/26 season. Her appointment also follows the recent selection of Sir Donald Runnicles as the orchestra’s new Chief Conductor. 

From the success of her first guest appearance with the Dresden Philharmonic in November 2023, conducting Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, the orchestra’s musicians expressed their wish to continue the artistic collaboration; as a result, Berglund will return to the orchestra in January and February 2025 to conduct works by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. 

Berglund initially trained as a cellist and studied with Truls Mørk, performing regularly with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestras, plus the Trondheim Soloists.

In 2015, she focused on conducting, studying with Ole Kristian Ruud at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She was the 2018–20 star of the Talent Norway program and is a past recipient of the Gstaad Conducting Academy’s Neeme Järvi Prize.

Her other European returns in the 2024/25 season include Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra; her debut engagements include Gothenburg Symphony, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, and more. 

Additionally, she will make her debut with the Minnesota Orchestra and Houston Symphony, as well as Principal Guest weeks with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; she will make her Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra debut in November 2024. 

Berglund will make her first appearance with the Dresden Philharmonic in her new role at the end of August 2025; she will also lead the 2025/2026 season opening concert, before directing a concert at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele in 2026.

“My first encounter with the Dresdner Philharmonie … was incredibly inspiring,” Berglund said in the press release. “I experienced the highest quality, openness to intensive collaboration and an atmosphere at the concert that I have rarely experienced in any other hall. The audience is not only physically close to the orchestra and vice versa, but you feel a real connection that is hugely motivating artistically. For me, the future of classical music lies in reaching younger audiences with our music, while at the same time creating a real human connection.I’m convinced that I can contribute to this in Dresden and am very much looking forward to working together.”

“I very much welcome the decision to appoint Tabita Berglund as Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie,” added Sir Runnicles. “I know from my own experience how important it is to be given great opportunities early in one’s career, and I have always supported this. This includes not only invitations to conduct great orchestras, but also the concrete, long-term exchange with an outstanding orchestra. Tabita Berglund has already attracted attention with her fresh, convincing approaches to classical works and will certainly be an asset to the Dresdner Philharmonie and its audience.”

“I’m often asked how I made it to the top of a large organization as a woman,” explained Dresden Philharmonic’s General Manager Frauke Roth. “To be honest, I’m fed up with this question. The same goes for artists. What counts for the quality of an orchestra is artistic excellence and what I call a common language. 

“Much more importantly, the choice of a young conductor like Tabita Berglund for this position is that it creates new ways of communicating, breaking down hierarchies and allowing an artistic partnership of equals to develop between musicians and the conductor,” Roth continued. “I’m convinced that, in addition to great seriousness and enormous artistic willpower, it is precisely this kind of collaboration that creates particularly moving musical experiences. Tabita Berglund will certainly help to consolidate excellence, attract new audiences and lead the Dresdner Philharmonie in the future in an open and innovative way.”