Alain Altinoglu

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Alain Altinoglu
RM interview Alain Altinoglu (cropped).jpg
Altinoglu at Rheingau Musik Festival, 2023
Born (1975-10-09) 9 October 1975 (age 50)
Paris, France
Education Conservatoire de Paris
Occupations
  • Conductor
  • Academic teacher
Organizations
Spouse Nora Gubisch
Awards Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Website www.alainaltinoglu.com/home.html

Alain Altinoglu [a] (born 9 October 1975) is a French conductor of Armenian descent, and an academic teacher. He is chief conductor of both the La Monnaie opera in Brussels and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. He teaches at the Conservatoire de Paris. He conducted performances and recordings of rarely played operas, such as Massenet's Thérèse and Lalo's Fiesque , and of new music including Pascal Dusapin's Perelà uomo di fumo.

Contents

Life and career

Altinoglu was born in Paris to an Armenian family who were originally from Istanbul. In Istanbul, the Armenian surname Altunyan was turkified to Altinoglu. [1] Altinoglu studied music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. [2] [3] After finishing his studies at the Conservatoire, Altinoglu joined the school's faculty and became director of the conducting class there in 2014. [4]

Altinoglu conducted a concert performance of Lalo's neglected first opera Fiesque in 2006, with Roberto Alagna in the title role, Michelle Canniccioni as Léonore, Béatrice Uria-Monzon as Julie, Franck Ferrari as Verrina, the Radio Latvia Choir and Orchestra of Montpellier on 27 July 2006; a recording of it was released in 2011 by DG. [5] He conducted a concert performance of Bernard Herrmann's opera Wuthering Heights with the Opéra Orchestre national Montpellier for Radio France in 2010, which was released as CD in 2011. [6]

Altinoglu first appeared as a guest conductor with La Monnaie in 2011, conducting a production of Massenet's Cendrillon . In September 2015, La Monnaie announced the appointment of Altinoglu as its next music director, effective January 2016; it was his first formal post with an opera house. [7] [8] In December 2019, La Monnaie announced the extension of Altinoglu's contract through 2025. [9] In August 2025, La Monnaie announced a further extension of Altinoglu's contract as its music director through 2031. [10]

Conducting Verdi's Un ballo in maschera in Choregies d'Orange in 2013 Orange - Choregies 7.jpg
Conducting Verdi's Un ballo in maschera in Chorégies d'Orange in 2013

Altinoglu conducted a concert revival of Massenet's Thérèse on 21 July 2012 at the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, with Nora Gubisch, Charles Castronovo and Étienne Dupuis  [ fr ] in the leading roles, which resulted in a recording released in 2013. [11] [12] At the Bayreuth Festival, he conducted the 2015 performances of Lohengrin in the production by Hans Neuenfels. [13]

In August 2019, Altinoglu first guest-conducted the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester). In December 2019, the hr-Sinfonieorchester announced the appointment of Altinoglu as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2021/22 season, with an initial contract of three seasons, as his first chief conductor position with a symphony orchestra. [14] In May 2023, the Hessischer Rundfunk announced an extension of Altinoglu's contract as the orchestra's chief conductor through the 2027–2028 season. [15] [16] The orchestra has traditionally played the opening concert of the Rheingau Musik Festival at Eberbach Abbey, where Altinoglu has presented French music, such as Gounod's St. Cecilia Mass with the MDR Rundfunkchor in a live-streamed concert in 2025. [17]

Altinoglu is married to the mezzo-soprano Nora Gubisch. The couple perform in recital together, and have recorded commercially together. [18] [19] Altinoglu has also made other recordings on CD and on DVD, including Pascal Dusapin's Perelà uomo di fumo, [20] and Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher . He recorded Khachaturian's Piano Concerto and Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto with Nareh Arghamanyan and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2015. [21]

Awards

Notes

  1. ↑

References

  1. ↑ Mirak-Weissbach, Muriel. "Alain Altinoglu Comes to Frankfurt". The Mirror-Spectator. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  2. ↑ "Biography". www.alainaltinoglu.com. Archived from the original on 7 April 2024. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  3. ↑ "Alain Altinoglu – Concertgebouworkest". www.concertgebouworkest.nl. Archived from the original on 17 August 2024. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  4. ↑ "Le Conservatoire accueille un nouveau Chef d'Orchestre : Alain Altinoglu". Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, 14 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Pierchon, Nicolas (27 July 2006). "Création concertante de Fiesque, premier opéra de Lalo". ResMusica (in French). Archived from the original on 27 October 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2020..
  6. ↑ "Wuthering Heights". bernardherrmann.org. 2025. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  7. ↑ "Alain Altinoglu – Music Director of La Monnaie" (PDF) (Press release). Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. 2 September 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Koen van Boxern (2 September 2015). "Alain Altinoglu moet orkest De Munt in juiste richting sturen". De Tijd. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "Alain Altinoglu, Directeur musical de la Monnaie jusqu'en 2025" (Press release). Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  10. ↑ "Alain Altinoglu, Music Director of La Monnaie until 2031" (Press release). Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. 26 August 2025. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  11. ↑ Clements, Andrew (18 July 2013). "Jules Massenet: Thérèse – review". The Guardian . Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  12. ↑ Andy Gill (2 August 2013). "Album review: Alain Altinoglu, Choeur et Orchestre Opéra National Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, Massenet: Thérèse (Palazzetto Bru Zane/Ediciones Singulares)" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  13. ↑ "Alain Altinoglu". Bayerischer Rundfunk (in German). 23 August 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  14. ↑ "Alain Altinoglu wird zur Saison 2021/22 neuer Chefdirigent des hr-Sinfonieorchesters Frankfurt" (Press release). Hessischer Rundfunk. 5 December 2019. Archived from the original on 6 December 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  15. ↑ "Naturgewalten und Trompeten". hr-sinfonieorchester.de (in German). 3 May 2023. Archived from the original on 16 August 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  16. ↑ "Vertrag mit Alain Altinoglu, Chefdirigent des hr-Sinfonieorchesters, verlängert – neue musikzeitung". nmz (in German). 3 May 2023. Archived from the original on 16 August 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  17. ↑ "Rheingau Musik Festival eröffnet". Hessenschau (in German). 21 June 2025. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  18. ↑ Andrew Clark (18 July 2014). "Nora Gubisch and Alain Altinoglu: Folk Songs – review". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  19. ↑ Andy Gill (18 August 2012). "Album: Nora Gubisch, Alain Altinoglu, Ravel: Mélodies (Naïve)" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 28 August 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  20. ↑ Clements, Andrew (17 March 2005). "Dusapin: Perelà – Uomo di Fumo, Graham-Hall/ Philippe/ Perraud/ Mahe/ Montpellier Opera/ Altinoglu". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  21. ↑ Gutman, David (17 March 2015). "Khachaturian; Prokofiev Piano Concertos". Gramophone . Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  22. ↑ "Nomination dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres – été 2023". Ministère de la Culture (in French). 30 November 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2024.
  23. ↑ "Alain Altinoglu erhält französischen "Ordre des Arts et des Lettres"". hr-sinfonieorchester.de (in German). 15 December 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2024.
Cultural offices
Preceded by Music Director, La Monnaie
2016–present		Succeeded by
incumbent
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