Finnegan Downie Dear

Winner of the Mahler Competition 2020, Finnegan is increasingly recognised for his fine musicianship, his command of complex scores, and his intense and mature performances. Born in London, he is now based in Berlin.

Following a week conducting the Bamberger Symphoniker in a variety of repertoire, the jury of the Mahler Competition were unanimous in their decision to award him the First Prize. He subsequently led a final concert which included the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s move 04 ‘Memory Full’ and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, with soloist Barbara Hannigan.

Finnegan recently made concert debuts conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Korea Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Haydn Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz, Klangforum Wien, the State Philharmonic of Kosice, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the RTÉ National Symphony and Concert Orchestras. Future symphonic engagements include performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

In September 2020 he returned to Bamberg, stepping in at the last minute to lead the Bamberger Symphoniker in rehearsals for their season opening concerts. Music Director Jakub Hrůša subsequently invited Finnegan to share the podium with him for those performances, as part of the Momentum initiative. He returns this season to lead the orchestra in subscription concerts as well as fully staged performances of Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are.

Recent operatic highlights include engagements at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Gerald Barry Alice’s Adventures Under Ground), Nevill Holt Opera (Don Giovanni), Polish National Opera (Die Tote Stadt), Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Hänsel und Gretel), Korean National Opera (Hänsel und Gretel) and Scottish Opera (Greek). Future plans Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Swedish Opera as well as productions at Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and Theater an der Wien.

In 2020 Finnegan was nominated in the ‘Newcomer’ category at the International Opera Awards. As Music Director of the award-winning company Shadwell Opera, he collaborates with the UK’s finest young singers and instrumentalists, bringing stagings of seminal twentieth-century and contemporary works to new audiences. His performances with Shadwell Opera have received consistent acclaim, featuring works by Benjamin, Maxwell Davies, Turnage, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. In 2019 Shadwell Opera’s most ambitious project to date saw it tour with its orchestra and ensemble to the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, for the Russian premiere of Where the Wild Things Are.

Finnegan studied musicology at Cambridge and piano at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating from both with distinction. He subsequently worked as a conducting assistant to Simone Young, Thomas Adès, Daniel Harding, Matthias Pinscher and Richard Baker with many of the finest European orchestras and opera houses. In 2017 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.