Around the Music Festival

Daniel Harding, a conductor who also works as a part-time pilot for Air France, recently flew members of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, which he will be the principal conductor of from the 2025/2026 season, from Rome to Paris on flight 1205, which he himself was in charge.

Harding is 49 years old and was born in Oxford. In order to obtain a pilot’s license, he resigned from his position as music director of the Orchestre de Paris in 2019, a position he had held since 2016, and since 2020 he has been working as an Air France part-time pilot while also conducting.

According to reports, as the plane was preparing to descend, the co-pilot, Harding, announced the weather in Paris and the time until arrival, etc., following with the words “Thank you for flying Air France”. He concluded with the words “And don’t forget, the rehearsal starts at 6pm”, and the plane was filled with cheers and whistles.

As a pilot, Daniel Harding has been at the controls of flights to Paris, Milan, Stockholm and Tunis. In an interview, he said, “In flying, you have to identify all the threats and avoid them. But in music, it’s the opposite. We have to get as close to destruction as possible.”

PHOTO：Musa　/　Musacchio, Pasqualini