Victorien Vanoosten

Conductor and pianist Victorien Vanoosten is the music director of the Ensemble Symphonique de Neuchâtel in Switzerland since 2019, a position he renewed in 2022 for five more seasons.

A former assistant conductor to Daniel Barenboim at Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, he is also the principal conductor of DEMOS, a French social project and equivalent ensemble to El Sistema founded by Philharmonie de Paris.

Current season highlights include Mr. Vanoosten‘s debut at the Vienna Musikverein marking his return to the Tonkünstler orchestra, returns to Polish National Radio Symphony and Lithuanian National Symphony, a new production of Carmen at Opéra de Marseille and the debut at the helm of the Orchestre Métropolitain of Montreal, with Emmanuel Pahud as soloist.

At Berlin Staatsoper, Mr. Vanoosten conducted performances of Cherubini’s Médée featuring Sonya Yoncheva in the title role, and Bizet’s Pêcheurs de perles, a Wim Wenders production. In 2014, he had been appointed assistant conductor of the Marseille Opera and became associate of music director Lawrence Foster. At the Opéra National de Paris, Mr. Vanoosten has conducted a reduced Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner. His groundbreaking 2021 video production of Sacre du printemps, together with the Swiss video and light artists collective Supermafia, earned him worldwide attention and became a viral YouTube phenomenon in classical music.

An accomplished symphonic conductor, Victorien Vanoosten was chosen to lead programs for the inaugural weekend of Philharmonie de Paris, when he conducted a concert also featuring Lang Lang. He has conducted the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and lead the Staatskapelle Berlin in outreach concerts. Outstanding soloists who have already marked his career include Olga Peretyatko, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Karine Deshayes, Sabine Devieilhe, Marianne Crebassa, Rolando Villazón, and Michael Volle. He also stepped in, at very short notice, with the Orchestre philharmonique de Marseille in particularly successful performances of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony as well as contemporary music including European premières.

As a pianist, Victorien Vanoosten recently performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, in play/conduct mode. In 2015, Victorien Vanoosten released his first piano solo CD featuring his own transcriptions of orchestral works by Debussy, Stravinsky, Duruflé, Saint-Saëns and Ravel. He was artistic editor of “La boîte à musique,” a classical music program on French national television, from 2010 to 2015, and has repeatedly appeared on Radio France and Radio Classique programs.