British conductor Finnegan Downie Dear has established an international presence through his work across both symphonic and operatic repertoire, developing close relationships with leading orchestras and opera houses throughout Europe and beyond.
Highlights of the 2026/27 season include significant opera debuts at the Opéra national de Paris, where he will conduct a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni directed by Louisa Proske, as well as at the Semperoper Dresden with Beethoven's Fidelio. He also returns to Opera Australia with Puccini's La bohème. Symphonic highlights include renewed engagements with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg (on two concert tours), the Västerås Sinfonietta, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, and the Hellenic State Orchestra of Athens. He also makes his concert debuts with Les Siècles at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and with the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice.
Downie Dear is a regular guest at the Berlin State Opera, where he most recently conducted productions of Don Giovanni and The Turn of the Screw. Previously, he led performances of The Makropulos Affair and The Marriage of Figaro there, as well as numerous concerts with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra – with a repertoire ranging from Schubert and Ravel to Kurtág, Benjamin, and Abrahamsen.
Among the recent symphonic highlights is his return to Staatskapelle Dresden for subscription concerts following his debut with the orchestra, as well as renewed engagements with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic, the Potsdam Chamber Academy, and the Greek National Orchestra of Athens. He also made debuts with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Enescu Philharmonic, and the Welsh National Opera Orchestra. Furthermore, he toured with the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra to Baden-Baden and the Elbphilharmonie and conducted concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the DSO Berlin, the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Among the soloists he has worked with are Kirill Gerstein, Mikhail Pletnev, Paul Lewis, Steven Osborne, Gil Shaham, Isabelle Faust, Veronika Eberle, James Ehnes and Gautier Capuçon.
His recent opera engagements include debuts at the Opéra de Lyon (Billy Budd) and at Garsington Opera (Der Rosenkavalier), as well as a return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with The Magic Flute, where he also conducted Gerald Barry's Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
Further engagements took him to the Hamburg State Opera (Eugene Onegin, Falstaff), the Theater an der Wien (Miroslav Srnka’s Voice Killer), the Korean National Opera (Hänsel und Gretel), the Polish National Opera (Die tote Stadt) and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, where he conducted Oliver Leith's acclaimed new production of Billy Budd. He also appeared at the Salzburg Easter Festival and the Tokyo Spring To experience the festival.
Finnegan Downie Dear is the artistic director of Shadwell Opera, a London-based opera company dedicated to contemporary British repertoire and experimental operatic forms. Their production of Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are toured the Mariinsky Theatre in 2019 and Bamberg in 2022, the latter in partnership with the Bamberg Symphony. In the summer of 2024, the company premiered Isabella Gellis's The Devil's Den at the Nevill Holt Festival. Downie Dear presented a new production of the work at Opera North in November 2025.
Born in London, Downie Dear graduated with distinction in musicology from the University of Cambridge and in piano from the Royal Academy of Music. He came to international attention in 2020 when he was awarded First Prize at the International Mahler Competition of the Bamberger Symphoniker.