Biography

Marc Minkowski was born in Paris in 1962. He began his musical career as a bassoonist, playing both in modern orchestras and in such period-instrument ensembles as Les Arts Florissants, the Clemencic Consort of Vienna, and La Chapelle Royale. He gained his initial conducting experience in France and subsequently studied with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux Conducting School in Hancock, Maine.

1982Forms Les Musiciens du Louvre, a Paris-based period-instrument ensemble for the performance of Baroque and Classical repertoire; with them he has since achieved success both in concerts and recordings, championing music by Marais, Mouret, Charpentier, Lully, and Rameau, and reviving interest in lesser-known Handel operas, such as Teseo‚ Amadigi, Riccardo primo, and Ariodante as well as several operas by Gluck, including Armide (at the Versailles Baroque Festival), Alceste, and Iphigénie en Tauride (at the English Bach Festival)1984Wins First Prize at the first International Early Music Competition in Bruges1990Awarded the Orphée d’or as “Best Young Conductor" by the French Académie du disque Lyrique1993Conducts Lully’s Phaéton for the official reopening of the Lyon Opéra1994Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre sign an exclusive contract with Archiv Produktion1995First CD release on Archiv Produktion: Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du disque‚ Grand Prix des discophiles, 1995; Cannes Classical Award, CD Compact, Barcelona, Diapason d’or‚ Orphée d’or, 1996)1996Conducts Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Paris Opéra and Don Giovanni in Toronto; CD releases this year: Handel’s La Resurrezione (Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du disque‚ Grand Prix des discophiles, 1996) and Rameau’s Anacréon and Le Berger fidèle1997Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre move to Grenoble where they join forces with the Orchestre de chambre de Grenoble; Minkowski makes his highly acclaimed Salzburg Festival début with Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail (Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra); tours the Netherlands conducting Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer; CD releases this year: Charpentier’s Te Deum and Messe de Minuit; Handel’s Ariodante (Cannes Classical Award‚ Classic CD Award, 1999)1998CD releases this year: Mondonville’s 6 Sonatas op. 3; Lully’s Acis et Galatée1998 ÷ 1999Conducts Weber’s Oberon and Massenet’s Cendrillon as Music Director of De Vlaamse Opera1999Concert performances of Rameau’s Platée with Les Musiciens du Louvre at Salzburg in May and a new production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, with Mireille Delunsch and Anne Sofie von Otter, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; CD releases this year: Gluck’s Armide; Roman Motets (including Dixit Dominus), and Messiah highlights (soundtrack from William Klein’s film Le Messie) by Handel2000European tour of Handel’s Hercules and recording for Archiv Produktion; begins a traversal of the complete Beethoven Symphonies with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, continuing this project in the following seasons; makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic début with Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique; CD releases this year: Rameau’s Dardanus (Diapason d’or, 2000; Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 2001) and Italian Cantatas by Handel, featuring Magdalena Kožená2001Conducts Handel’s Ariodante with Anne Sofie von Otter and Les Musiciens du Louvre in Paris, Grenoble, Dresden, and Salzburg; with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducts Le nozze di Figaro at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; conducts Die Fledermaus at the Salzburg Festival and Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Netherlands Opera; CD releases this year: Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride (Diapason d’or, 2001; Echo Award‚ Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 2002) and the complete Messiah2002CD releases of Handel’s Hercules (awarded Diapason d’or and Choc du Monde de la musique, 2002) and of a collection of arias and scenes by Jacques Offenbach, both with Anne Sofie von Otter and Les Musiciens du Louvre. Handel’s Giulio Cesare recorded live at the Vienna Konzerthaus in November; Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique recorded with the combined forces of Les Musiciens du Louvre and Mahler Chamber Orchestra in December2003Performances include Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Lausanne; conduct­ing debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with the City of Birmingham Symphony and Mahler Chamber orchestras; with Les Musi­ciens du Louvre – Grenoble directs productions of Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Ruhr Triennale Festi­val and Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène at the Châtelet in Paris; conducts Auber’s Le Domino noir in Italy with the Orchestra of La Fenice. CD releases include Han­del’s Giulio Cesare (Diapason d’or and Record Acad­emy Prize, Tokyo, 2003), Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Herminie with the combined forces of Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble and Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Preis der Deut­schen Schallplattenkritik‚ 2003) as well as a collection of French arias featuring Magdalena Kožená (Gramophone Award, 2004)2004Conducts Mozart’s Entführung at Aix-en-Provence and Handel’s Semele in Paris and Acis and Galatea in Brussels, Grenoble, Madrid and Oviedo; with the Zürich Opera, more Handel – Il trionfo del tempo with Cecilia Bartoli – as well as Rameau’s Les Boréades; further performances of Die Entführung in Rouen with the Orchestre Léonard de Vinci; returns to Birmingham for concerts with the CBSO; the year finishes with Offenbach’s Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein at the Châtelet. CD release: Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice2005Opens the New Year with the Dresden Staatskapelle at the Semperoper perform­ing Offenbach, Johann Strauss and Waldteufel; engagements include Mozart’s Zauberflöte in Paris and Madrid, Beethoven’s Leonore in Paris, Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Lyon and Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Zürich; at the Salz­burg Festival with Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble he conducts Mozart’s Mitridate; a European Handel tour features Acis and Galatea and Il trionfo del tempo; con­certs with the Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre de Paris, RSO Frankfurt, Deut­sches Symphonie-Orchester of Berlin and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlighten­ment; CD release: “Une Symphonie imaginaire”, orchestral music by Rameau with Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble2006Mozart in Salzburg, including orchestral works with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Salzburg Camerata, and Mitridate with Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble whom he also conducts in an all-Offenbach programme in Grenoble; in Paris Rameau’s Platée and Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Palais Garnier, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Britten’s Phaedra with Jessye Norman at the Châtelet; Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo and Donizetti’s La favorita for Zürich Opera and concerts of 19th- and 20th-century works with the Cleve­land Orchestra, SWR Sinfonieorchester and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. CD release this year: Mozart’s last two symphonies with Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble2007His busy schedule includes Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo at the Zurich Opera, Haydn symphonies, Bach’s B minor Mass and Bizet’s Carmen with Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble at numerous European venues, and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande with the Orchesta of the Stanislavski Theatre in Moscow. The CD Offenbach Romantique, a selection of works by Jacques Offenbach, is scheduled for release internationally at the beginning of the year

9/2006