Music Director Louis Langrée Extends Contract With Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra announced that it has extended its contract with music director, Louis Langrée, through its 125th anniversary season in 2019­-20.

Named Music Director of the world-renowned Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra starting in the 2013-14 season, Louis Langrée is an internationally acclaimed conductor with a dynamic presence on the podium. The French conductor is Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York, a position he has held since 2002, and Chief Conductor of the Camerata Salzburg.

His first concert as Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra included a performance of Copland's Lincoln Portrait (narrated by Dr Maya Angelou). During that inaugural season he also conducted world premiere performances by Nico Muhly and David Lang and works by Brahms, Prokofiev, Ravel, Scriabin and Jennifer Higdon. The performances of the Copland, Muhly and Lang works were recorded and will be released on a disc, Hallowed Ground, this fall.

Louis Langrée continues to conduct the world's most venerable orchestral and operatic ensembles including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with whom he has a long term relationship, Berliner Philharmoniker, Leipzig Gewandhaus, NHK Symphony in Tokyo, Orchestre de Paris, Budapest Festival and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Wiener Symphoniker at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra Comique in Paris, and the Wiener Philharmoniker in concert in both Vienna and Salzburg.

He has worked with many other orchestras in North America, Europe and further afield, including the London Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Sao Paulo and Tokyo Philharmonic. He also regularly conducts chamber orchestras including the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and period instrument ensembles: the Freiburger Barockorchester, Orchestra of the Age of Enligtenment and Le Concert d'Astrée. Festival appearances have included Wiener Festwochen, Salzburg Mozartwoche, BBC Proms, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. He has held positions as Music Director of the Orchestre de Picardie (1993-98) and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (2001-06).

Louis Langrée was Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon (1998-2000) and Glyndebourne Touring Opera (1998-2003). He has also conducted at La Scala, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra-Bastille and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dresden Staatsoper, Grand Théâtre in Geneva and the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam.

Louis Langrée's discography includes recordings for Virgin Classics, Universal and Naïve. Many of these have won awards including Diapason d'Or, Gramophone and Midem Classical. His most recent release is a DVD of La Traviata recorded at the Aix-en-Provence Festival with the London Symphony Orchestra for Virgin Classics, which has been awarded a Diapason D'Or. In 2006 he was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

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