LAURENT PILLOT
Associate Music Director
Los Angeles Opera
The French conductor Laurent Pillot was Associate Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera from 2003 to 2006, working alongside Kent Nagano and Plácido Domingo. In Los Angeles, he conducted a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos and performances of Tosca, Madama Butterfly and La Bohème.
Guest conductor
Guest engagements have included with the Opéra National de Lyon, New York City Opera, Teatro Regio Turin, the Hallé orchestra Manchester, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier, I Pomeriggi Musicali Milan, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla and Orquesta de Valencia.
Orchestre Symphonique
Rhône-Alpes Auvergne
Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique Rhône-Alpes Auvergne - OSYRA since 1986, Laurent Pillot believes that symphonic music should be accessible to everybody everywhere. All its concerts feature an introduction from the stage by the conductor. These introductions are designed to give an insight both to the aficionado as well as to those attending a live concert for the first time.
Recordings
He conducted and recorded Così fan tutte with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, a version based on the recent research by the musicologist Ian Woodfield.
French Repertoire
A specialist in nineteenth and early twentieth century French opera, his performances of Fauré’s Pénélope, les Contes d’Hoffmann, Béatrice et Bénédict, Cendrillon and Bloch’s Macbeth - were warmly received by the New York press.
The Cunning Little Vixen
the film
He has a commitment to taking opera through a range of media to people who may not have the opportunity otherwise to experience it.
Film work has included Britten’s Owen Wingrave and The Seven Deadly Sins with Teresa Stratas, Peter Sellars and Kent Nagano.
He has overseen each new language version of the award-winning BBC film of The Cunning Little Vixen, creating sound-tracks in addition to the English in Catalan, Czech, French, and Spanish. He has brought Janáček’s masterpiece to an entirely new audience through live performance – big screen showings with orchestra live on stage.
Read more The Cunning Little Vixen
Publications
La part de créativité de l'interprète
Juris Art 2016
Quel avenir pour l'orchestre symphonique,
quel public pour demain?
Juris Art 2017
The artists of the future
Alongside his work with professional ensembles, Laurent Pillot has developed a passion for working in opera with talented young singers and instrumentalists. His work in Munich, where he founded the Opera Studio at the Bavarian State Opera, was the subject of a three-part documentary for German television. Excerpts
He has been associated with the European Opera Centre for more than a decade and has conducted the Centre’s singers and European Union Youth Orchestra for celebrations of Europe Day in London, repeated at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
Early professional work
As well as five years as Assistant Conductor at the Opéra de Lyon, Laurent Pillot’s own professional training came from work at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic, at the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and in the United States.