(Credit: Opus 3 Artists official website)

The Office of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has announced the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2020.

Among those honored was General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin Donald Cameron Runnicles, who has been bestowed with the title of the Knights Bachelor, for services to Music.

Donald Runnicles is concurrently the General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, as well as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He is also the Conductor Emeritus of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, having served as its Chief Conductor from 2009 to 2016.

Runnicles also served as the General Music Director of the San Francisco Opera from 1992 to 2008.

The maestro maintains regular guest relationships with several top orchestras in the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others.

Runnicles, who holds honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, recently conducted Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” “Lohengrin,” “Parsifal,” and “Tannhäuser” at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, full Wagner’s Ring cycle at the San Francisco Opera, Richard Strauss’ “Elektra” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” at the Edinburgh International Festival, and Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, among others.

He is in the midst of conducting a run of Wagner’s “Die Walküre” at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Runnicles is slated to conduct the Strauss’ “Elektra” at the Metropolitan Opera House in April 2022.