Marc Minkowski
Marc Minkowski studied bassoon, before taking up conducting at a young age, receiving lessons from Charles Bruck. At the age of 19 he founded the ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre, of which he remains artistic director today. The ensemble’s initial focus was on the rediscovery of Baroque music; this was followed by explorations of works by French composers and by Handel; and the ensemble’s repertory then expanded to include works by Mozart, Rossini, Offenbach, Bizet and Wagner. For many years Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre have toured throughout Europe and worldwide.
As a guest conductor he is regularly invited to appear at prestigious theatres and leading festivals, among them the Berlin and Vienna State Operas, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, La Scala, Milan, the Zurich Opera House, the Paris Opéra, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Salzburg Festival. The numerous orchestras with which he has worked include the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Dresden Festival Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
Important recent projects have included a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlos at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, semi-staged performances of Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and Mozart’s Mitridate, Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni at the Berlin State Opera.
The 2024/25 season will begin for Marc Minkowski with a staged production of Haydn’s The Creation at the Cologne Opera. He will tour Europe with Les Musiciens du Louvre, giving concert performances of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus in Bremen, Baden-Baden, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. He will also conduct the ensemble in several concerts to mark the 150th anniversary of Georges Bizet’s death. As a guest conductor he will appear in Chicago and in a concert tour with the Basel Chamber Orchestra.
In 2011 Marc Minkowski founded the Festival Ré Majeure. From 2013 to 2017 he was artistic director of the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, from 2016 to 2021 he was general director of the Opéra National de Bordeaux, and from 2018 to 2022 he was artistic advisor to the orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan, with which he continues to work regularly.
In 2018 he was awarded the title of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.