Lionel Bringuier Conductor

French conductor Lionel Bringuier’s artistic maturity and interpretative depth have made him a mainstay with the world’s foremost orchestras and led to his being named Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich in 2012 at age 26. Now serving in his second season at the Tonhalle, Bringuier’s artistic vision and energy – both on and off the podium – are helping to usher the orchestra into a new era. Bringuier has appeared as a guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic, among others.

Building on the principles he established in his inaugural season with the Tonhalle Orchestra, Bringuier continues to celebrate the orchestra’s rich history while also expanding its repertoire, strengthening its commitment to community engagement, and extending its international reach. A key initiative was the creation of two new positions: Artist-in-Residence and Creative Chair, held in 2015-16 by violinist Lisa Batiashvili and composer Jörg Widmann. To launch the orchestra’s new season, Bringuier leads Widmann’s Elegie with the composer on clarinet, alongside Batiashvili and cellist Gautier Capuçon in Brahms’s Double Concerto. Widmann’s music figures prominently in subsequent programs, while Batiashvili rejoins the orchestra on its European tour, at the 2016 Zurich Festival, and for the Sibelius Violin Concerto; other notable guest artists include baritone Matthias Goerne, violinist Janine Jansen, and pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Yefim Bronfman, and Hélène Grimaud. The 2015-16 season sees Bringuier and the orchestra conclude their “Ravel Cycle,” a survey of the composer’s complete orchestral works, which is being recorded for release on Deutsche Grammophon. Bringuier also leads the Tonhalle on an extensive European tour highlighted by stops in Paris, Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Vienna, as well as in concert at the Prague Festival and Warsaw’s Beethovenfest.

Beyond Zurich, Bringuier’s 2015-16 season includes debuts with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orhcestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where he reunites with Yuja Wang, last year’s Artist-in-Residence at the Tonhalle. He rejoins Wang at the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a program featuring the West Coast premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Karawane, leads the world premiere of Bernhard Rands’s new English Horn concerto at the Cleveland Orchestra, collaborates with Martha Argerich and the Alma Chamber Orchestra at venues including the new Paris Philharmonie, and collaborates with Matthias Goerne at the Orchestre National de Lyon.

It was at just 14 that Bringuier made his professional debut, conducting a live concert on French national television, but it was his Besançon triumph at age 19 that launched his career in earnest. In 2007, after taking up an assistantship with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and an associateship with the Orchestre de Bretagne, he was chosen from nearly 150 applicants to serve

Lionel Bringuier, biography Page 2 of 2 under Salonen as Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, becoming at 21 the youngest in the orchestra’s history and the youngest to conduct at Disney Hall. His outstanding rapport with the orchestra, and success with audiences and critics, led to his reappointment under Gustavo Dudamel and subsequent promotion to Resident Conductor in 2011. Bringuier embarked on a concurrent three-season tenure as Music Director of Spain’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in 2009. Besides guesting with ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, and Royal Concertgebouw, he maintains close ties to his hometown of Nice, France, and regularly returns to conduct the neighboring Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo.

A staunch advocate of contemporary composition, Bringuier has conducted noteworthy premieres of works by Pedro Amaral, Louis Andriessen, Karol Beffa, John Corigliano, Marc-André Dalbavie, Philippe Fénelon, Philippe Hersant, Giya Kancheli, Magnus Lindberg, Bruno Mantovani, Gérard Pesson, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Rebecca Saunders, Steven Stucky, Éric Tanguy, and Erkki-Sven Tüür.

In addition to his championship of new music, Bringuier’s growing discography reflects his commitment to restoring less familiar works to the canon. Vincent d’Indy’s music was the vehicle for his 2007 album debut, and La Muse et le Poète, his 2013 Erato recording of Saint-Saëns concertos with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, scored glowing reviews. His BBC Proms debut, leading the BBC Symphony in Roussel and Chopin with Nelson Freire, was issued last year by Bel Air Classiques and named Gramophone’s “DVD of the Month.” Bringuier and the Brazilian pianist recently reprised Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto for the 2015 release Nelson Freire: Chopin, which marks the conductor’s Decca Classics label debut. He also looks forward to Deutsche Grammophon’s release of his complete “Ravel Cycle” with the Tonhalle Orchestra.

Born in Nice in 1986, Lionel Bringuier started cello at 5, and gave his first recital four years later. At 13, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied cello with Philippe Muller and conducting with Zsolt Nagy, graduating in 2004 with diplomas in both and winning a “Mention Très Bien à l’Unanimité.” Bringuier was awarded the Médaille d’or from the Lord Mayor of Nice in 2012; previous honors include first prize in a Janácek Philharmonic Orchestra competition and Monaco’s “Médaille d’or à l’unanimité avec les felicitations du jury à l’Académie Prince Rainier III.” (848 words) www.lionelbringuier.com www.facebook.com/Bringuier twitter.com/LionelBringuier