Marc Minkowski
Marc Minkowski plays an active role in promoting Classical music through his exciting career as a conductor and an artistic administrator. He is the artistic director of Les Musiciens du Louvre, which he founded in 1982, and created the Ré Majeure Festival on Île de Ré (French Atlantic coast) in 2011. He previously served as general manager of the Opéra National de Bordeaux from 2016 to 2021; artistic director of the Mozartwoche (Mozart Week) in Salzburg from 2013 to 2017; and the artistic advisor of Kanazawa Orchestra (Japan) from 2018 to 2022. He makes his conducting debut with Music of the Baroque on January 25 and 26 with "Minkowski Conducts.".
After studying the bassoon, Marc Minkowski began conducting at an early age, then followed maestro Charles Bruck’s academy at the Pierre Monteux Memorial School in Hancock, Maine. At the age of nineteen, he founded Les Musiciens du Louvre, an ensemble that was to play an active role in the revival of Baroque music. Under his direction, Les Musiciens du Louvre explored both French Baroque music and Handel, before expanding their repertoire to include Mozart, Rossini, Offenbach, Bizet, and Wagner.
Marc Minkowski's 2023-24 season includes a return to the Grand Théâtre de Genève for Don Carlos; semi-staged performances of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie; and several engagements at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Mitridate, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni). He will conduct various opera projects and symphonic concerts with Les Musiciens du Louvre, including Strauss’ Die Fledermaus at the Teatro Real in Madrid and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris; Handel’s Alcina at La Scala in Milan, La resurrezione on tour in France, Spain, Italy and Germany; and various concerts featuring Handel’s concerti grossi, Mozart symphonies, and Handel arias. He is also a guest conductor with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Braunschweig State Theatre Orchestra, the Dresden Music Festival, and the Kanazawa Ensemble Orchestra with concerts in Kanazawa and Tokyo.
Marc Minkowski regularly appears in many of the world’s most highly-regarded opera houses and concert halls. In Paris, he has conducted Idomeneo, Platée, Die Zauberflöte, Ariodante, Giulio Cesare, Iphigénie en Tauride, Mireille, and Alceste at the Opéra National; La belle Hélène, La Grande-duchesse de Gérolstein, Carmen, and Die Feen at the Théâtre du Châtelet; and La dame blanche, Pelléas et Mélisande, Cendrillon, Die Fledermaus, Mârouf, savetier du Caire, and Manon at the Opéra Comique. At the Opéra National de Bordeaux, he has conducted Pelléas et Mélisande, La vie parisienne, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Manon, Carmen, and Robert le Diable.
Marc Minkowski has conducted several operas at the Salzburg Festival (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mitridate, Così fan tutte, Lucio Silla, Die Fledermaus), and at Aix-en-Provence Festival (L’incoronazione di Poppea, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Idomeneo, Don Giovanni, Les Boréades, and Il turco in Italia).
With an active interest in collaborating with a diverse range of directors and choreographers, Marc Minkowski has worked with François Abou-Salem, Chistopher Alden, David Alden, Ivan Alexandre, Philippe Béziat, Robert Carsen, Jérôme Deschamps, Richard Eyre, Jürgen Flimm, Joan Font, Achim Freyer, La Fura dels Baus, Jean-Claude Gallotta, Romain Gilbert, Klaus Michael Grüber, Claus Guth, Karl Ernst and Ursel Herrmann, Kasper Holten, Vincent Huguet, Nicholas Hytner, Nicolas Joel, Charles Jude, Waldemar Kamer, Natalia Korczakowska, Günter Krämer, Martin Kušej, Jorge Lavelli, Benjamin Lazar, Macha Makeïeff, Satoshi Miyagi, Sergio Morabito, Mark Morris, David McVicar, Jean-Pierre Miquel, Hans Neuenfels, Adrian Noble, Pascal Paul-Harang, Laurent Pelly, Jean-Louis Pichon, Pier Luigi Pizzi, David Pountney, Olivier Py, Marshall Pynkoski, Emilio Sagi, Karine Saporta, Laura Scozzi, Florent Siaud, Philippe Sireuil, Jacopo Spirei, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Jossi Wieler, and Robert Wilson.
Marc Minkowski is also in high demand on the concert platform in standard and modern symphonic repertoire, conducting orchestras such as DSO Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Berlin Philharmonic, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, BBCSO, City of Birmingham SO, Kanazawa Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Finnish Radio Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Mariinsky Orchestra, Spanish National Orchestra, SWR Stuttgart, Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, Kanazawa Ensemble, Tours Symphony Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, and del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra, among others.