Born in Paris in 1962, conductor Marc Piollet studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin and attended master classes with John Eliot Gardiner, Michael Gielen and Kurt Masur. In 1995 he was a prize-winner at the Conductors' Forum of the German Music Council. After positions as Principal Conductor at the Philharmonic State Orchestra Halle and the Staatstheater Kassel, he was Music Director at the Volksoper Wien from 2003 to 2005. From 2004 to 2012 he celebrated great success as General Music Director at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden with Wagner's complete Ring and numerous new productions.
In the 2022/2023 season, Marc Piollet will be a guest at the Düsseldorf Opera (Massenet's Héroiade) and the Royal Swedish Opera (ballet production). Concert engagements take him to the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra Heidelberg.
Marc Piollet has also worked at major opera houses in recent seasons, including the Royal Theatre Copenhagen (La Bohème with Anna Netrebko as Mimi), the Bavarian State Opera as part of the Munich Opera Festival (Les Contes d 'Hoffmann), the Opéra National de Paris (Il barbiere di Siviglia, Les Contes d' Hoffmann with Rolando Villazón in the title role), the Staatstheater Stuttgart (Jenůfa, Duke Bluebeard's Castle/Erwartung), the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (Carmen and Don Giovanni), the Vienna State Opera (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (La Bohème and Carmen in a production by Calixto Bieito). He also made his operatic debut in the USA with Carmen at Cincinnati Opera in 2014, and in 2019 he conducted Le Nozze di Figaro there.
For many years he has worked closely with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (various new productions, most recently Petrushka/L'enfant et les sortilèges) and the Teatro Real in Madrid. In 2012 he gave a guest performance there with the dance theatre C(h)oeurs, a production by the Belgian choreographer Alain Platel with music by Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, which was enthusiastically received by the audience and the press. Two new productions followed, among others: During rehearsals for L'elisir d'amore (2013/14), Gérard Mortier asked him to conduct Peter Sellars' spectacular production of Tristan und Isolde.
Marc Piollet has performed worldwide with orchestras such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre National de Lyon, China Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
At the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, he conducted a Beethoven programme with Lang Lang and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. He regularly performs in joint opera galas with Piotr Beczała, including in Moscow in April 2021.
Marc Piollet also has a close artistic collaboration with Annette Dasch: a recording of Mozart arias together with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin was released by Sony, and tours with her and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, as well as the joint DVD production Die Gretchenfrage (EuroArts), are also worth mentioning.
For many years Marc Piollet has been intensively involved with young orchestral talent: he regularly conducts work phases of the Junge Sinfonie Berlin, which he founded while still a student. During his time as Wiesbaden's General Music Director, he actively promoted the founding of the Orchestra Academy of the Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden. Since autumn 2016 he has been a professor of conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.
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