The British conductor Robin Ticciati, currently Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, will become the next Music Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the start of the 2017-18 season.

Ticciati will become only the eighth Music Director of the orchestra, which was founded in 1947, following in the footsteps of Ferenc Fricsay, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly and Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kent Nagano, Ingo Metzmacher and Tugan Sokhiev. 

Of the announcement, Ticciati said: ‘It is a great honour and a pleasure for me to assume artistic responsibility for the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin starting in September 2017. The first time I had the opportunity to work with the musicians of this top ensemble last year, I was immediately fascinated by the flexibility of their playing, the richness of their sound and the high level of dedication of each individual.’

Still relatively early in his career, Ticciati (born 1983) has already produced many outstanding recordings, often with the SCO. Their disc of Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été was Gramophone's Recording of the Month in June 2013, with critic Geoffrey Norris writing, ‘Ticciati can coax a bleached, almost vibrato-less sound at moments of despair or introspection in ‘Au cimetière’ and ‘Sur les lagunes’; the woodwind can take on an ominous darkness; but equally the sonority can blossom and burgeon in the final song, ‘L’île inconnue’. And in between these two parameters the refined, natural calibration of dynamics and the supple weaving of the orchestral fabric are an absolute joy.’

Other notable Ticciati recordings include Britten's Peter Grimes (from La Scala, on DVD and Blu-ray) and Schumann's Symphonies Nos 1-4 (with the SCO), of which David Threasher wrote: ‘This is an extremely likeable and beautifully recorded traversal, worthy of standing alongside any of its recent competitors.’