Marc Soustrot, Conductor

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"Marc Soustrot manages the great feat of making the orchestral music, which blossoms out of its own unique world under his hands, serve the singer's sphere." - Frankfurter Neue Presse

Marc Soustrot is considered a specialist of French orchestral literature. He is also well-known for his deep involvement in contemporary music, which he has cultivated since the beginning of his career. He has been the chief conductor and artistic director of the Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire (1976–1994), the Beethoven Orchester Bonn (1995–2003) and Het Brabants Orkest Eindhoven (1996–2006). He has been chief conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra since the 2011/12 season and has led the orchestra in concerts in Sweden as well as on international tours. In addition, he took on the position as chief conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra from the 2015/16 season onwards. The Danish city of Aarhus was named European Capital of Culture in 2017.

As a guest conductor, Soustrot has worked with the Staatskapelle Dresden, Munich Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Filharmonie Antwerpen, Residentie Orkest Den Haag and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Luxembourg, Barcelona and Tokyo.

Marc Soustrot has many years of experience in the opera world and a vast operatic repertoire, including works such as Don Giovanni, Carmen, Werther, Pelléas et Mélisande, operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Jacques Offenbach, as well as Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. Futhermore, he has successfully conducted a number of contemporary operas, such as Ernst Krenek’s Karl V. He has worked with the orchestras of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Teatro Real Madrid, Grand Théâtre de Genève, La Monnaie de Munt, Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen and the Norwegian National Opera Oslo.

In 2012, he garnered much praise for his interpretation of Francis Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmelites at the Royal Swedish Opera and the Stuttgart Opera. Returning to Stuttgart, he recently conducted Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung (staging: Peter Konwitschny), Siegfried (staging: Jossi Wieler/Sergio Morabito), as well as Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier (staging: Stefan Herheim). In 2015, he gave his successful debut conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden in the new production of Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (staging: Álex Ollé/La Fura dels Baus) at the Semperoper Dresden.

In the 2015/16 season, he conducted, among other things, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Orchester Bonn and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart for Georges Bizet’s Carmen (staging: Sebastian Nübling) at the Stuttgart Opera.

Marc Soustrot has conducted on a number of prize-winning CDs and is currently recording the complete symphonic work of Camille Saint-Saëns with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra for Naxos. In 2008, he was honoured with the title of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

Born in Lyon, Soustrot studied trombone and piano at the Conservatoire de Lyon until 1969, when he began training as a conductor with Manuel Rosenthal in Paris.