We are delighted that Dane Lam has been appointed as Music Director of the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra from the 2023/24 season.
Dane made his US debut with the HSO in March 2022 with Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and returned to open the symphony’s Masterworks series this past October with Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9.
In his native Australia, he was the first conductor in the history of Opera Queensland to be honoured with an official position when he was appointed their Associate Music Director and Resident Conductor in December 2020, and he has been Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of China’s Xi’an Symphony Orchestra since 2014.
Over the coming months, Dane conducts new productions of Carmen for West Australian Opera (directed by Stuart Maunder) and for Scottish Opera (directed by John Fulljames) and is looking forward to a return to Opera Australia.
His credits also include appearances with the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Het Residentie Orkest, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Beethoven Orchester Bonn and the Verbier Festival Orchestra.
As well as functioning as the chief artistic director of the 84-member orchestra, Dane will conduct 10 out of the 18 weeks of the HSO’s 2023/24 season, culminating in a performance of Michael-Thomas Foumai’s Raise Hawaiki, a monumental work for chorus and orchestra celebrating the return of Hōkūleʻa from the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage in 2017.
Dane will serve as Music Director Designate until July 2023, when he will assume the position of Music Director. He was appointed by unanimous vote. His contract initially runs for five years.
