How can young musicians learn to become professional orchestra players?

Vincent Agrech

Journalist

Vincent Agrech is a journalist and producer. He has been a signature of Diapason magazine for nearly twenty-five years, and is also the author of an essay on El Sistema, Un orchestre pour changer le monde (published by Stock), and a collection of interviews with Philippe Jarousky, Seule compte la musique (Premières Loges). At the same time, he was Head of the music department of the Institut Français, delegate-general of Le Poème Harmonique, theatrical producer of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and is now in charge of international relations at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre.

Paul Agnew

Musical Co-Director, Les Arts Florissants

Since William Christie took notice of him, the British tenor and conductor Paul Agnew has established himself on the greatest opera stages as a performer of the Baroque repertoire. In 2013, he became assistant musical director of Les Arts Florissants, with whom he performed the complete madrigals of Monteverdi and Gesualdo, as well as Monteverdi's L’Orfeo, all recorded by Harmonia Mundi. Co-director of the academy Le Jardin des Voix and of the festival Dans les Jardins of William Christie, he is the artistic director of the Festival de Printemps – Les Arts Florissants. He has been Musical Co-Director of Les Arts Florissants since 2020.

André-François Arcier

Physician and President, Association Médecine des Arts

Dr. André-François Arcier is the founding president of Médecine des Arts® and director of the associated training institute and review. He started the website www.medecine-des-arts.com and the Clinique du Musicien®. He has published with Editions AleXitère Le trac: le comprendre pour mieux l’apprivoiser (2000), Le stress: des clés pour comprendre (2000), and Le trac: stratégies pour le maîtriser (2004) as well as contributions to several books published under the direction of Raoul Tubiana: Traité de chirurgie de la main, vol. 6 (1998), Medical Problems of the Instrumental Musician (2000), and Prévention des pathologies des musiciens (2008).

Michael Barenboim

Dean, Chamber Music and Violin Professor, Barenboim - Said Akademie

Michael Barenboim lets music, in its diverse and enduring ways, speak for itself through his violin. Committed to the core classical and romantic repertoire, he is recognized for his performances of the 20th century and contemporary repertoire. Parallel to his solo concert and recital performances, Barenboim also serves as concertmaster of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and cultivates a continuous and strong involvement in educational activities. He is Professor for chamber music and violin at the Barenboim-Said Academy and was appointed Dean in 2020.

Pierre Barrois

Director, Orchestre français des Jeunes

Pierre Barrois heads the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, supported by the French Ministry of Culture, which since 1982 has been training young French orchestral musicians in all aspects: symphonic work, mediation, "historically informed" performance, musicians' health, musical entrepreneurship and law, environmental issues, etc. He is Vice-President of the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras (EFNYO), which gathers some thirty pre-professional orchestras similar to OFJ. He has also been artistic administrator of the Verbier Festival orchestras.

Delphine Blanc

Violist, Associate Reseacher at the Centre Georg Simmel EHESS, Teacher at Sciences Po Paris

Delphine Blanc is a viola player, trained in Paris and The Hague, and specialized in period instruments. She plays with ensembles that include the Concerto Köln and the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble in Germany, Insula Orchestra and Pygmalion in France. Delphine Blanc holds a PhD in sociomusicology. She is an associate researcher at the Georg Simmel Center of EHESS and CNRS and teaches at Sciences Po Paris.

Anne-Sophie Brandalise

Director, Orchestre de Paris

Anne-Sophie Brandalise's career spans experiences in regional governmental organizations and cultural institutions. After graduating in political sciences and philosophy, she was Director of Audiences and Development, then Assistant Managing Director at the Opéra National de Bordeaux for ten years. Since June 2018, she has been Managing Director of the Orchestre de Paris and has operated the integration of the Orchestre de Paris into the Philharmonie de Paris. She is also Treasurer of the Biarritz National Ballet's endowment fund. She is a regular lecturer at the Sciences Po Bordeaux cultural master’s degree and Prep’ENA (preparatory class for the ENA exam).

Jeanne Bonnet

Double bass player, Orchestre de Paris

Jeanne Bonnet discovered the double bass at a young age, with Jean-Loup Dehant at the Conservatoire de Douai, where she was awarded the double bass prize at age 15. She went on to train with Thierry Barbé and Jean-Edmond Bacquet at the Conservatoire de Paris, where she obtained a master's degree in June 2017. Very soon, she acquired solid experience as a soloist and orchestra member, thanks to the academies of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (2014), Orchestre de Paris (2015) and Opéra de Paris (2016). After two years spent with l’Orchestre de la Garde Républicaine, she joined the ranks of the Orchestre de Paris in August 2019.

Rachel Dale

Education and Outreach Manager, Orchestre de Paris

After a music-oriented youth in Great Britain, Rachel Dale pursued her passion for harp at the Royal College of Music in London, where she earned a First Prize. Then she turned toward music administration at the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, where she developed programmes for young audiences and set up the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique with the Centre Culturel de Saintes. She joined William Christie at Les Arts Florissants in 2001 to publicise and then coordinate educational activity at the Festival de Thiré. In 2015, she became Education and Outreach Manager at the Orchestre de Paris.

Gonneke De Jong

Academy Coordinator, Concertgebouworkest

Born in the Netherlands, Gonneke de Jong is coordinator of the Academy of the Concertgebouworkest since 2016. Previously she worked as a producer for The Concertgebouw, organizing concerts in both the Main Hall and the Recital Hall. In addition, she served as project manager of TRACKS (multidisciplinary evening concerts for a younger audience) and of The Concertgebouw’s SummerConcerts. In the past, she was head of production at the Grachtenfestival, a chamber music festival with over one hundred concerts on special locations throughout Amsterdam. De Jong holds a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Management.

Emilie Delorme

Director, Paris Conservatory

Emilie Delorme became Director of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris on January 1, 2020. In 2009, Bernard Foccroulle called on her to manage the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Together they created the European network of opera academies (enoa), which she managed until 2019. She also initiated the Medinea (MEDiterranean INcubator of Emerging Artists). She was in charge of the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée from 2014 until she left the Festival d’Aix. She is also President of the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine.

Stefan Dohr

Principal Horn and Orchestra Board Member, Berliner Philharmoniker

After studying in Essen and Cologne he became principal horn of the Frankfurt Opera at the age of 19. Engagements followed with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester of Berlin before, in 1993, he finally became a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker. As a soloist he has collaborated with such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado and Sir Simon Rattle. Stefan is a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music, the Sibelius Academy, and a permanent faculty member at the Karajan Academy and the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin.

Mathieu Ferey

Director, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon

Trained as a pianist, Mathieu Ferey graduated from the Paris Conservatory in esthetics and the history of music. His interests led him to administration and he has served as director of the conservatories of Vincennes (Val-de-Marne) and of the 17th arrondissement of Paris, before being named inspector of music for the City of Paris in 2014. Fascinated by the connections between music and text, Mathieu Ferey is regularly invited to lecture and write programme notes, and he co-authored with Benoît Menut a work dedicated to the composer Joseph-Guy Ropartz. He was chosen to head the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon in January, 2019.

Nicolas Droin

General Director, Orchestre de chambre de Paris

Nicolas Droin has been Managing Director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris since 2013. Beginning in 1995, he successively directed the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées (Philippe Herreweghe), les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), and the chamber choir Accentus (Laurence Equilbey). As a member of the board of the employers' association Les Forces Musicales, he coordinates studies on Covid in the context of the PIC-PIV project (Covid-19 protocol for musicians and singers).

Charlotte Gardner

Journalist

Charlotte Gardner is a classical music journalist and critic, writing and reviewing for Gramophone magazine (where she specialises in strings and Baroque), The Strad, Qobuz, Takt1 and dCS Only the Music among other publications. As a writer of concert programme notes she works most regularly with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Orchestras. She also authored the English translation of Emmanuel Hondré's 100 Pieces of Advice to a Young Musician. Beyond writing, she is a permanent guest on the Classical Top 5 podcast, and co-hosted the 2020 Virtual Verbier Festival on medici.tv.

Léo Genet

Double bass player, Concertgebouworkest

Born in 1993, Léo Genet began learning bass at the age of 7 in Jean-Marie Verne's class at the Conservatoire Régional de Lyon. In 2010, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse of Lyon and studied with Bernard Cazauran, François Montmayeur, and Cédric Carlier. He participated in the French Youth Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra, playing principal bass and joined the academy of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016/17. In the 2017/18 season, before joining the Concertgebouworkest, he was a member of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Carjez Gerretsen

Clarinet soloist, Paris Mozart Orchestra

A graduate of the Lyon and Paris conservatories, Carjez Gerretsen won the Crusell international clarinet competition (Finland) in 2009 and the Freiburg international competition in 2012. In the Orchestre Français des Jeunes and the World Youth Orchestra he discovered the attraction of the symphonic repertoire. A member of the Paris Mozart Orchestra, he is a regular guest performer at the Orchestre national de France, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre d’Auvergne, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Opera de Rouen, and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, among others. He is also a professor of clarinet at the conservatoire de Gennevilliers.

Donald Glowinski

Researcher in neuropsychology, University of Geneva

Donald Glowinski is a researcher in affective science and a consultant in change management. He coordinates the "Science & Music" program at the Swiss Center for Affective Science of the University of Geneva and directs its training program in "emotional skills in professional situations." From 2017 to 2020 he was the scientific director of the Emodemos project at the Philharmonie de Paris. He co-founded and chaired the Fondation de Ribaupierre-Graz to encourage access to the practice of music. His website: www.k-emo.com

Roberto González-Monjas

Violinist and Conductor; Verbier Festival Orchestra alumnus; Chief Conductor, Dalasinfoniettan

Roberto González-Monjas is Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Dalasinfoniettan (Sweden), and Artist in residence with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon (Valladolid). He served as concertmaster of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for six years, and is leader of the Musikkollegium Winterthur. Alumnus of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, he regularly performs with the VF Chamber Orchestra as concertmaster. He co-founded Iberacademy for young musicians in Latin America, and serves as violin professor at the Guildhall School, where he undertakes a number of conducting projects.

Emmanuelle Haïm

Director, Le Concert d’Astrée

After teaching the Baroque repertoire at the Conservatoire de Paris, in 2000 Emmanuelle Haïm founded Le Concert d’Astrée. The group, in residence at the Opéra de Lille since 2004, performs on the world’s major stages. At the same time, Emmanuelle Haïm is a regular guest director of prestigious orchestras. 2021 will see an original production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (stage direction by Franck Chartier / Peeping Tom) and of Campra's Idoménée at the Opéra de Lille and the Staatsoper of Berlin (stage direction Alex Ollé / La Fura dels Baus). In 2021-2023, Emmanuelle Haïm will be guest director in residence at the CMBV (Centre de musique baroque de Versailles).

Felix Heri

Director, Lucerne Festival Academy

Felix Heri was born 1986 in Switzerland, he studied clarinet at the Lucerne School of Music and graduated with honours a master degree in clarinet performance. He continued his studies in arts management at the University of Basel and worked as a freelance musician and a project manager for various festivals and events. In 2011, he founded his own music festival Takto and 2012 took over the management of the Basel Sinfonietta - an orchestra specialising in contemporary music. Since 2020 he is the head of the Lucerne Festival Academy and is looking for new ways in developing the next generation of musicians and new music.

Emmanuel Hondré

Director of the Department of Concerts and Performances, Cité de la musique - Philharmonie de Paris

Director of the Department of Concerts and Performances at the Cité de la musique - Philharmonie de Paris, every year he organizes a series of 500 concerts in this complex of 5 concert halls. A Doctor of Musicology and graduate of the Conservatoire National de Musique et de Danse de Paris (history of music, esthetics, music education and musicology), he conducted research on the history of the decentralisation of teaching and cultural policies in 19th-century France. He has published many articles and books, including Le Conservatoire de Paris - Regards sur une institution et son histoire (1995), La Marseillaise (2002), François Devienne (2004) and 100 Pieces of Advice to a Young Musician (2019).

Charlotte Juillard

Concermaster and member of the artistic commission, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg

Charlotte Juillard is first supersolo violinist in the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. Dedicated to the symphonic repertoire, she also has explored the chamber music repertoire as a member of the Zaïde quartet from 2009 to 2017, of the string trio Miroir created in 2020, and of the Karénine trio since March, 2021. She varies her experience through gut strings and the music of today. Recently, Charlotte Juillard has been interested in teaching via guest appearances in regional conservatories, playing in string orchestras and teaching violin and chamber music.

Katharina Kühl

Musician of the orchestra; Member of the board, Akademie NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester

Katharina Kühl was born in 1984 in Hildesheim, Germany, and started playing the cello at the age of five. She studied with Prof. Christiane Aydintan, Prof. Bernhard Gmelin and Prof. Frans Helmerson. Aside from her career as an orchestra musician, her passion lies in chamber music, especially string quartet, and performing on period instruments. She was a student substitute in the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester (former NDR Sinfonieorchester) in 2007/08 and then won a permanent position in the orchestra in 2010. Katharina has been on the board of the NDR Orchestra Academy ever since it was founded in 2012.

Emmanuel Laville

Solo oboe, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Emmanuel Laville is currently the oboe soloist of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a position he held from 2008 to 2011 in the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He is also professor of oboe at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. After receiving his musical training diploma at the Conservatoire de Paris in 2006, he was accepted as a member of the Academy of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, under the mentorship of its oboe soloist. He has also taken part in several orchestral training sessions (Orchestre Français des Jeunes, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, Verbier Music Festival Orchestra...).

Olivier Leymarie

General Manager, Ensemble intercontemporain

Managing Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain since 2017, Olivier Leymarie was previously General Manager of Erda, a project that includes Accentus and Insula Orchestra, under the artistic and musical direction of Laurence Equilbey. Earlier he was Artistic Director and Director of Productions at the Dijon Opera (2008-2013) and Assistant Director of Productions at Cité de la Musique (2003-2008). In each of these positions, he ardently promoted musical creation and breaking down barriers among the arts.

Marie Linden

General Manager, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg

Inspired since childhood by her passion for music, Marie Linden had a generalist education (Science Po Paris) before entering a career in administering cultural institutions.  From 1999 to 2010 she had the good fortune of associating with Pierre Boulez in the Ensemble intercontemporain, where she was in charge of artistic coordination. She then joined the team of Bruno Mantovani in the Conservatoire de Paris, first as head of the department of writing, composition and conducting, then as Director of production and stage training. In 2017, she was appointed General Manager of the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg.

Roni Mann

Director of Humanities, Barenboim-Said Akademie

Roni Mann is Professor of Philosophy and Political Thought and the founding Director of Humanities at the Barenboim-Said Akademie (est. 2016), developing a liberal arts curriculum for musicians, and teaching its core philosophy classes. She was previously a research fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), had earned her doctorate at the Harvard Law School, and taught a range of subjects at Harvard College. Her scholarly work focuses on the discursive conditions for principled normative deliberation in the public sphere.

Philippe Manoury

Composer

Philippe Manoury is considered a pioneer in the research and development of real-time electronic music. He has been collaborating with Ircam for over 30 years. His catalog includes 5 operas, numerous works for full orchestra, concertos, works for piano, chamber music and vocal music. From 2004 to 2012, he taught composition at the University of California, San Diego, and, in 2017, held the Annual Chair of Artistic Creation at the Collège de France. His writings can be found at www.philippemanoury.com

Myriam Mazouzi

Director of the Academy, Opéra de Paris

Myriam Mazouzi has always been keen to initiate innovative artistic and cultural projects, collaborating with renowned artists and conductors. Production manager of the Orchestre de Paris from 2002 to 2011, she created in 2015 the Académie de l'Opéra de Paris, of which she is the director. Structured around both the training of young opera professionals and artistic/cultural education, the Academy is a springboard for international careers and is the repository of the Opéra de Paris’ age-old practical knowledge.

Stephen McHolm

Academy Director, Verbier Festival

Stephen McHolm has been the Director of the Academy & Unlimited (Cultural Engagement) of the Verbier Festival since 2017. Before Verbier, McHolm grew the Honens International Piano Competition into one of Canada’s most respected and widest-reaching classical music organizations—discovering, nurturing, and promoting the talents of emerging concert artists. In 2013, he was named an Honorary Fellow of Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music for his contribution to classical music and arts education, joining a distinguished group that includes David Foster and Oscar Peterson.

Michael Nock

Associate Director, Tanglewood Music Center

Michael Nock is an Associate Director at the Tanglewood Music Center—the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer academy for advanced musical training— where he has worked in various roles for twenty years. He served for five years on the faculty at Dean College in Franklin, MA. Michael Nock has also lectured and written on music for the BSO and other organizations, including as scriptwriter for the Houston Symphony’s weekly broadcasts. During the summer season, he curates and hosts a weekly radio show featuring performances by Tanglewood Music Center Fellows. He is currently writing a book on music appreciation.

Clémence Quesnel

Deputy director, Association Française des Orchestres

Clémence Quesnel holds a Master’s Degree in Public Law and a degree in music studies. She performed as french horn player in several french orchestras and wrote legal articles for 2 years in the journal « La Lettre du Musicien ». She volunteered for the Centre de Musique de chambre de Paris for 2 years. As deputy director of the FAO, she is particularly in charge of orchestras observation, gender equality issues and ecological and environmental issues.

Steve Roger

General Director, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Steve Roger has been General Manager of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande since October 1, 2019, a position he also held from 2000 to 2012. He is an active member of several Boards (Geneva School of Music Foundation, Artistic Committee of Rosey Concert Hall, etc.). He is a professor at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève (Geneva University of Music). He has, since 1989, held positions at the Opéra National de Lyon, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Orchestre National de France. Finally, from 2012 to 2019, he was a Senior Associate at the Caecilia Agency of concerts and performances.

Aline Sam-Giao

Managing Director, Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon

After studying at Sciences Po Paris and at the University of Sussex, Aline Sam-Giao turned toward the world of music. She worked at the Fondation Royaumont, with the baroque ensemble Le Poème Harmonique, at the Festival Berlioz, and then as managing director of the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie. Since 2017, she has been the Managing Director of the Auditorium - Orchestre National de Lyon. At the same time, she is vice president of the Association française des orchestres and of Les Forces musicales. She is also a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Liselotte Schricke

Flutist, Orchestre de chambre de Paris

In 2006 Liselotte Schricke attended the Maîtrise de Radio France, where she received a complete musical education. After earning her Diplôme national supérieur professionnel de musicien as well as the Diplôme d’État de professeur de musique in 2013, she replaced the flute co-soloist at the Malmö SymfoniOrkester for several months, then joined the Academy of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam before becoming the flute soloist of the Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House until July 2019. Since September 2020, she has been flute co-soloist at the Orchestre de chambre de Paris.

Barbara Smith

CEO, Orchestre des Jeunes du Canada

Barbara’s passion and dedication to all genres of music and to youth and education are the major driving factors in her current role as CEO and Artistic Director of The National Youth Orchestra of Canada. She was also executive director of the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra and before then, Manager of Arts development for the City of Markham. She was also a member of the London Symphony Orchestra and has performed in several chamber ensembles. In 2011, she was awarded Western University’s Don Wright School of Music Distinguished Alumni Award for outstanding career achievement and contribution to music in Canada.

Arthur Stockel

Clarinettist, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg

Solo clarinetist in the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra since December, 2018, Arthur Stockel entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in 2016 in the class of Pascal Moraguès. He took part in chamber music and orchestras across Europe, notably with the Gustav Mahler Jungendorchester. After training in bass clarinet for orchestra, he spent a year with the London Symphony Orchestra. He has also participated in several European orchestra academies, like that of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Jonathan Vaughan

Vice-Principal & Director of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Jonathan is currently Vice Principal & Director of Music at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London. He was a member of the London Symphony Orchestra for ten years and became Chairman in 1999. He was then Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for five years before taking up his current role. He is a Fellow of both the Higher Education Academy and the Guildhall School. Jonathan is currently studying for a PhD and is researching “Artistic Citizenship and Performance Excellence in Music Conservatoires”.

Fabienne Voisin

Director, Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France

To put classical music within reach for everyone is Fabienne Voisin's constant mission. After training in music (at the conservatoires of Lyon and Boulogne-Billancourt) and in management, she became head of productions at TransArt Production, then also of broadcasting, before moving to Africa for 4 years. Then she was named Director of the National Orchestra of Ile-de-France and has been Managing Director since 2011. She is regularly invited to be on the jury of international competitions and belongs to the French British Committee for Contemporary Music and the New Music Program to uphold the importance of artistic creation.