Laurent Pillot
Conductor
Laurent Pillot conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with wonderful grace and energy.
Tim Ashley - gramophone.co.uk
CD "Cosi fan Tutte" - Rubicon Classics
Laurent Pillot was Associate Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera alongside Kent Nagano and Placido Domingo, during which time he conducted Ariadne auf Naxos, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and La Bohème.
He has since been invited to conduct the Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Lyon, the New York City Opera, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Welsh National Opera Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra of Manchester, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier, the Prague Radio Orchestra, the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Limoges, I Pomeriggi Musicali Milan, the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, the Orchestra of Valencia, and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Maroc.
Musical Director of the Orchestre Symphonique Rhône-Alpes Auvergne since 1986, he contributes to spread the symphonic repertoire to the widest audience.
Following the same approach, Laurent Pillot has multiplied experiments using different media; he participated in the filming of Britten's Owen Wingrave and Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins with Teresa Stratas, Peter Sellars and Kent Nagano, two operas specifically shot for television. He also supervised each new language adaptation of the BBC cartoon The Cunning Little Fox -creating versions in English, Catalan, Czech, French and Spanish-, versions that he regularly performs, accompanying the projected film with a live symphonic orchestra.
Particularly attracted by the French lyrical repertoire of the 19th and early 20th centuries, his interpretations of Pénélope, Béatrice et Bénédict, Cendrillon and Les Contes d'Hoffmann have been warmly welcomed by the American press: his participation in the American premiere of the original French version of Bloch's Macbeth at the Borden Auditorium in New York City was thus praised by The New York Times: ". ..Drawing vibrant and colorful playing from the orchestra, Laurent Pillot was especially good at conveying the mysteriousness that pervades this overlooked score...".
In 2018, his recording of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, based on the musicological discoveries of Professor Ian Woodfield recreating for the first time Mozart's first intentions and recorded for the Rubicon classics label, was also warmly praised: "The performance itself is excellent. Laurent Pillot conducts with superb energy and grace [...] Anyone who cares about Così should hear this." (Tim Ashley - Gramophone).
In parallel to his professional commitments, Laurent Pillot has always invested in the training of young singers and instrumentalists. His work at the Munich Opera, where he founded and directed the Opera Studio from 2006 to 2009, was the subject of a documentary broadcasted on several television channels around the world.
Artistic advisor and Music Director of the European Opera Centre since 2003, he has conducted the young singers of the Centre with the European Union Youth Orchestra for the Europe Day celebrations, a concert which was performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Assistant Conductor of the Opéra National de Lyon from 1991 to 1996, he conducted the orchestra in concerts and performances of L'Elisir d'amore, Cendrillon (Prokoviev), La Vie Parisienne, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, A Midsummer night's dream, L'Amour des trois oranges, Cosi fan tutte...
Laurent Pillot has been assistant conductor at the Vienna Festival (Austria), the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Covent Garden in London.
Laurent Pillot is represented by RSB Artists since 2012.