Danail Rachev is Music Director of the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Oregon and Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Rachev succeeded Giancarlo Guerrero and previous Music Directors Marin Alsop and Miguel Harth-Bedoya as Music Director of Eugene Symphony in July 2009.
He oversees all artistic activities of the orchestra, conducts their symphonic series and programmes all of the orchestra’s concert activities. “We are all truly excited about Danail’s appointment,” commented Paul Winberg, Eugene Symphony Executive Director. “Danail’s musicianship and passion for music were evident from our very first meeting. He is a true artist and will continue to build on the proud tradition of great conductors leading our orchestra.”
The 08-09 season saw Rachev return to Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and make debuts with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Orquestra Nacional do Porto and Nashville Symphony. Future highlights include debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights of the 09-10 season with Eugene include a cycle of the Beethoven Piano Concerti featuring soloists Gabriela Montero, Angela Hewitt and Garrick Ohlsson. With the Philadelphia Orchestra, Rachev conducts several concerts throughout the 09/10 season and will work closely with Charles Dutoit in preparations for the orchestra’s Asian tour in spring 2010.
Rachev was Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 2005-2008 where he led numerous public concerts and education programmes. Of his main series debut The Dallas Morning News wrote: "One of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's best concerts of the past year....start to finish, assistant conductor Danail Rachev got the music unfailingly right, and viscerally compelling."
In 2002-03 Rachev was the first ever Conducting Fellow of the New World Symphony where he studied with Michael Tilson Thomas and worked alongside him on many occasions. His debut and subsequent appearances in numerous subscription, family, and chamber music concerts were met with consistent critical acclaim. In his native Bulgaria Rachev has worked with several ensembles including the Russe State Opera, where he led performances of Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Danail Rachev was born in Shumen, Bulgaria and trained at the State Musical Academy in Sofia, where he received degrees in orchestral and choral conducting. He moved to the United States to study at the Peabody Conservatory on a full scholarship, graduating in 2001. His conducting teachers have included Gustav Meier, Michael Tilson Thomas, Vassil Kazandjiev, David Zinman, and Leonard Slatkin.
Danail Rachev is represented by Intermusica.
July 2009 / 397 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
"Who knew that Rimsky-Korsakov's overworked Scheherazade could actually sound fresh and really exciting? It took the DSO assistant conductor, the Bulgarian-born Mr. Rachev, to do just that, with deliciously seductive solos from concertmaster Emanuel Borok. No wonder DSO musicians like Mr. Rachev so much."
Dallas Morning News, December 2007
"Recently I bemoaned the shortage of suitable young conductors, but Michael Tilson Thomas has apparently found a gifted one to be first conducting fellow of the New World Symphony. He is Danail Rachev, a Bulgarian from Juilliard who opened Saturday's concert in the Lincoln Theatre with an astutely pointed performance of Stravinsky's rarely-revived Four Etudes for Orchestra….Rachev and the orchestra had the complexities of all four pieces in full control and put the Stravinskyian stamp on them."
The Miami Herald
"Rachev's clear, demonstrative conducting elicited powerful, pitch-perfect solos from the players, especially concertmaster Emanuel Borok."
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"The DSO has a major talent in [Rachev], trained both in his native Bulgaria and at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. So many of our younger American-trained conductors are interchangeable metronomes, but Mr. Rachev has proved a musician of real depth, sensitivity and authority."
Dallas Morning News
"The Mendelssohn is an opportunity for conductor and players to travel on serene and stormy seas. Rachev shaped the breezy aquatic episodes with seamless fluidity and invigorated the moments of dangerous drama."
Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 2007
"On Saturday Assistant Conductor Danail Rachev proved remarkably adept at coaxing stylish Bach performances. He did this with much-reduced ensembles: a maximum of 19 players in the Second Concerto, a mere seven in the Sixth. Rhythms and phrases were nicely buoyant."
Dallas Morning News, July 2007
"The concert led off with Mozart's Six German Dances, K. 509. Conducting Fellow Danail Rachev led a vigorous, boldly projected performance that conveyed much of the music's wit and dance element…"
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"New World conducting fellow Danail Rachev preceded the Ravel with a fluent and sensitive reading of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun….the New World players responded to Rachev's direction with gracious and evocative playing…"
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"What makes The Tender Land work is the clarity, beauty and honesty of Copland's music, qualities that come through strongly in the Opera Vivente production at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. The chamber version of the original orchestration (idiomatically prepared in 1985 by Murray Sidlin and approved by Copland) enhances the score's directness without any great loss of warmth. On Sunday afternoon, conductor Danail Rachev shaped that score tellingly, revealing particular appreciation for its gentlest, most introspective moments."
The Baltimore Sun