Emmanuel Krivine

From Russian descent through his father and Polish through his mother, Emmanuel Krivine began his career as a violinist at a young age. Awarded the Premier Prix of the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 16, he was a scholar at the Chapelle Musicale de la Reine Elisabeth de Belgique, and studied with Henryk Szeryng and Yehudi Menuhin, winning many of the most prestigious awards. After a decisive meeting with Karl Böhm in 1965, he increasingly devoted himself to conducting, becoming a permanent Guest Conductor at the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France between 1976 and 1983, and subsequently Musical Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon from 1987 until 2000, and of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes for eleven years. At the beginning of the 2006/07 season he accepted the post of Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, following acclaimed collaborations with the orchestra as a guest conductor since 2001.

Emmanuel Krivine has conducted many of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Zurich Tonhalle, RAI Turin and Czech Philharmonic. In North America he has conducted the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, and in Asia and Australia he has worked with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, NHK Symphony Tokyo and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of recent and future seasons include tours of the UK, Spain and Italy with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, performances with the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Orchestra Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In the opera house he also conducted acclaimed productions at the Opéra-Comique in Paris (Béatrice et Bénédict) and Opera de Lyon (Die Fledermaus).The 2010/11 season and beyond sees visits to the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and National Symphony Orchestra Washington.

In 2004 Emmanuel Krivine joined forces with a group of musicians from all over Europe to form La Chambre Philharmonique, and he and the ensemble devote themselves to the research and interpretation of the classical and romantic repertoire up to the present day, using instruments that are adapted to the compositions and the period. From their very first appearance at the ‘Folles Journées de Nantes’ in January 2004, La Chambre Philharmonique have demonstrated the uniqueness of their approach, gradually winning recognition, particularly through their first recordings for Naîve : Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Mendelssohn’s Italian and Reformation Symphonies, and a revelatory disc coupling Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 with Schumann’s Konzertstück for four horns. Their most recent release – a complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies - was honoured as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine, and the Ninth acclaimed by Fanfare Magazine as “an exciting, frequently moving performance […] the antithesis of the bloodless historically-informed performance tradition.”

Emmanuel Krivine has also recorded with the Philharmonia, Bamberg Symphony, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestre National de Lyon and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, in repertoire including Strauss, Schoenberg, Ravel, Berlioz, d’Indy, Ropartz and Dusapin. He is currently recording a series of Debussy’s orchestral works with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.