Photo credit: © Iryna Nesterenko
Conductor, soloist, composer, teacher, Jean-François Verdier has been hailed by critics as “an extraordinary talent.” Super-soloist clarinettist with the Opéra national de Paris and professor at the Paris Conservatoire, he is a laureate of international competitions in Tokyo, Vienna, Antwerp, Colmar, and Lugano. He played under Ozawa, Gergiev, Salonen, Boulez, Dudamel, Nelsons, Jordan… and with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Awarded the Bruno Walter Prize at Lugano in 2001, he became assistant to Philippe Jordan and Kent Nagano, then as resident conductor of the Orchestre national de Lyon (2008–2010). Since 2010, he has led the Orchestre Victor Hugo, acclaimed for its award-winning recordings (German Critics’ Prize, Diapason d’or, Chocs of Classica, Choc Jazz, Diamant of Opéra Magazine…) and his IMAX film with Renée Fleming.
He is sought after by major international stages (Paris, Munich, Tokyo, Vienna, Madrid, Montreal, Warsaw, Luxembourg, Brussels, Mexico City, Moscow…), he has conducted more than one hundred productions at the Opéra national de Paris and collaborated with Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Sandrine Piau, Thomas Hampson, Piotr Beczała, Isabelle Faust, Sergei Nakariakov, François Leleux, Nemanja Radulović, Alexandre Kantorow… He is jury member at international competitions, he has worked alongside Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Yutaka Sado, and Dennis Russell Davies.
As a composer, he has written musical tales and mini-operas for children, performed by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich… at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Opéra Bastille Auditorium, the Capitole de Toulouse, Dessau Oper, and beyond.
