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Kerstin Altka@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-235
Heike Wilmshw@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-236
General Management
Marc Soustrot, our favourite conductor from France, was in top form as usual – and the musicians love him for this […]. And for something else, which other conductors […] rarely give: heart. Stuttgarter Zeitung
Marc Soustrot has broad experience and expertise in the major works of the classical and Romantic repertoire, as well as in the music of Bach and contemporary works. He is particularly beloved by audiences for his interpretations of French orchestral compositions. He has been the artistic director and chief conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire (1976–1994), the Beethoven Orchester Bonn (1995–2003), Het Brabants Orkest Eindhoven (1996–2006) and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (2011-2019). Marc Soustrot is chief conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, which he has led since the 2015/16 season. From the 2021/22 season he has been appointed as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla.
As a guest conductor, Soustrot has worked with the Staatskapelle Dresden, Munich Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, MDR Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Filharmonie Antwerpen, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Luxembourg, Barcelona, Warsaw and Tokyo.
Marc Soustrot has many years of experience in the opera world and with a vast operatic repertoire, including works such as Don Giovanni, Carmen, Werther, Pelléas et Mélisande, operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Jacques Offenbach, as well as Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. He has also successfully conducted a number of contemporary operas, such as Ernst Krenek’s Karl V. He has worked with the orchestras of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Teatro Real Madrid, Grand Théâtre de Genève, La Monnaie de Munt, Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen, Frankfurt Opera and the Norwegian National Opera Oslo.
In 2012 he garnered much praise for his interpretation of Francis Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmelites at the Royal Swedish Opera and the Stuttgart Opera; in 2019 in Stockholm he conducted the work again to great acclaim. In Stuttgart, Marc Soustrot guest conducted Götterdämmerung, Siegfried, Der Rosenkavalier, Bizet’s Carmen and Gounod’s Faust in recent seasons. In 2015 he gave his successful debut conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden in a new production of Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (staging: Álex Ollé/La Fura dels Baus) at the Semperoper Dresden, and later continued his fruitful collaboration with Álex Ollé with Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher at the Oper Frankfurt. In 2018 he conducted Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust on an astounding tour with Sophie Koch, Paul Groves, Bryn Terfel, the Malmö Symfoniorkester, and the MDR-Rundfunkchor, with performances in Dresden, Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Hamburg. In 2019, the MDR-Rundfunkchor also took part in Berlioz’s Requiem Grande Messe des Morts at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In the 2022/23 season Marc Soustrot will return to the Symphony Orchestras of Malmö and Zuidnederland.
Marc Soustrot has conducted on numerous prize-winning CDs and recorded the complete symphonic works of Camille Saint-Saëns with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra for Naxos. In 2008 he was honoured with the title of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
Born in Lyon, Soustrot studied trombone and piano at the Conservatoire de Lyon until 1969, when he began training as a conductor with Manuel Rosenthal in Paris.
2022/23 season
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"Accustomed to the delicacy of the French maestro, Bartók's overwhelming power came as a surprise.”
El Correo de Andalucía, Juan José Roldán, 16/2/2024
“It was an exemplary, authentic, natural and truthful interpretation offered by Marc Soustrot to Seville as if this were the Vienna of the early twentieth century.”
Codalario, Álvaro Cabezas, 28/9/2022 - on Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla
“In Soustrot's hands, Brahms' symphonies are explicit, fiery and authentic, forming with each movement a unitary and consistent ensemble.”
Codalario, Álvaro Cabezas, 21/6/2022
“Marc Soustrot accustomed as we were to enjoying him generally in programmes of French music, proves to be an all-rounder.“
el Correo de Andalucía, Juan José Roldán, 8/4/2022
"Soustrot offered interpretations of extreme structural clarity in which the contrasts of light and dark stood out."
Diario de Sevilla, Pablo J. Vayón, 7/4/2022
“Conductor Marc Soustrot transforms the Malmö Symphony Orchestra into a top body of sound with very French fine-tuning of colours. Absolutely worth hearing!“
Wiener Zeitung, Edwin Baumgartner, 2/8./2021 – on the CD with Saint-Saens' complete symphonies
“For the current New Year's Concert ROSS chose Marc Soustrot, a conductor who has always shown an affinity for the ensemble and a remarkable sensitivity for colour.”
Diario de Sevilla, Pablo J. Vayón, 03/01/2021
“Marc Soustrot gave the orchestra confidence from bar one onwards. Everything about his musical approach and body language was round, supple and inviting.”
Eindhovens Dagblad, Marjolijn Sengers 10/10/2020
“Swedish Malmö Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the experienced French conductor Marc Soustrot, explores the richness of Berlioz's romantic composition.”
Sächsische Zeitung, Rainer Kasselt, 4/6/2018 – on Berlioz's "La Damnation de Faust", June 2018
“Marc Soustrot conducted thoughtfully and with exact phrasing.”
Frankfurter Rundschau, Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich, 12/6/2017 – on "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher", Opernhaus Frankfurt
“The musical direction, incorporating everything from the rare Ondes Martenot with its distinctive howl to innocent-sounding French folk song, lay in the expert hands of Marc Soustrot, who did a fantastic job with the Frankfurter Museumsorchester.”
Musik Heute, Bettina Boyens, 12/6/2017 –
“Marc Soustrot ensured a connection between both works and a sense of dramatic development through a highly differentiated and majestic interpretation that made no compromises.”
klassik.com, Christiane Franke, 11/6/2017
“Leading the Staatsorchester, Marc Soustrot was well suited to the airy lightness of Gounod, especially where the style was close to Jacques Offenbach. Under Soustrot’s baton, the music had a fluency, radiance and malleability as well as clear contouring and sense of direction. Elsewhere, the singers had a highly sensitive and reactive dynamic range.”
Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Susanne Benda, 2/11/2016 – on Gounods "Faust", Stuttgart State Opera 2016
“Musically, the performance was of a very high standard. The Stuttgart Staatsorchester performed the score flawlessly and emphasized its passionate sumptuousness. The magnificent, opulent melodies were particularly successful in this well considered performance. […] Soustrot and the Stuttgart Staatsorchester vividly illustrated real feeling – Gounod the “church musician” also comes into his own. […] Marc Soustrot achieved a fine balance between orgiastic obsession and aloof asceticism. […] He gave free rein to the Stuttgart Staatsorchester’s intuitive sense of musical colour.”
Der neue Merker, 2/11/2016
“Conductor Marc Soustrot and the Stuttgart Staatsorchester’s interpretation only got better throughout the opera’s three hour duration. Sinewy soundscapes, pacey tempi, feisty directness, frothy lyricism – all was present and fully realised.”
Münchner Merkur, Markus Thiel, 2/11/2016
“The famous Kapellmeister Soustrot, the resplendent-sounding orchestra and the Staatsopernchor – magnificently prepared by Johannes Knecht – stormed through the score with celebratory fervour. Brisk, agile, light-hearted and funny, in serious moments the ensemble could be powerful and brooding, with dark, booming trombone – particularly in the curse scene, when Valentin returns from the war and dies in the public square for all to see.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Eleonore Büning, 1/11/2016
“Marc Soustrot, our favourite conductor from France, was on top form as usual – and the musicians love him for that: precision, freedom, elegance and brutality, charm and sarcasm; he recalls everything that Strauss wrote in this “comedy for music.” And there is something else that other conductors at this venue rarely give: heart.”
Stuttgarter Zeitung, 14/04/2015 – on Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier", Stuttgart State Opera, April 2015
“Conducting the velvety strings, and focused and precise brass players of the splendid Staatsorchester, Marc Soustrot holds the reins of the Viennese spirit that Richard Strauss gave the piece: the waltz prances and lingers when called for and pulls back when the articulation of the sung part comes to the fore. This is an interpretation of Strauss that […] has been worked on very precisely so that all the tone quality comes across cleanly: music with zest and wit.”
Stuttgarter Nachrichten, 14/04/2015
“I have rarely experienced Debussy’s opera performed with such delicate pastel-coloured sensitivity. Although Soustrot by all means also produced dramatic tension with compelling intensification, where necessary. Powerful conducting.”
Die deutsche Bühne, 24/01/2015 – on Debussy’s "Pelléas et Mélisande", Semperoper Dresden, January 2015
“The French conductor Marc Soustrot discreetly and powerfully leads the Sächsische Staatskapelle, which is noticeably engaged in the interpretation.”
Der Tagesspiegel, 29/01/2015
“The orchestra plays brilliantly and, together with its conductor, already receives standing ovations after the second interval. Indeed, an orchestral sound develops that radiates the most stunning colours; the brass is flawless, beautiful and pure in every register. Marc Soustrot, who has shone on many occasions as conductor in Stuttgart, uses every dynamic without obscuring the singers in the loud passages. He gives full and impressive scope to the dramatic breath of the music.”
Online Musik Magazin, 03/02/2013 – on Wagner's "Götterdämmerung", Stuttgart State Opera, January 2013
“The musicians were highly concentrated under the very accomplished direction of Marc Soustrot, playing with great intensity, producing a rich sound and implementing the conductor’s intentions marvellously. […] Soustrot’s main focus was on bringing out the multi-layered network of musical motifs, never letting the tension waiver. It was absolutely brilliant to witness how he concisely explored and contrasted the various leitmotifs in all their ramifications, interconnections and modifications.”
Der Opernfreund, 01/02/2013
César Franck: Symphony in D minor
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Marc Soustrot
Danacord, 2024, DACOCD982
Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Marc SoustrotNaxos, 2021, 8.503301
Romain Descharmes, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Marc Soustrot
Naxos, 2018, 8.573478
Danacord, 2016, DACOCD 775
Marion Cotillard, Xavier Gallais, Yann Beuron, Maria Hinojosa, Marta Almajano, Aude Extrémo, Anna Moreno-Lasalle, Eric Martin-Bonnet, Carles Romero Vidal, Pep PlanasLieder Càmera Choir, Madrigal Choir, Vivaldi-Petits Cantors de Catalunya ChoirBarcelona Symphony Orchestra, Marc Soustrot
Alpha Classics, 2015, alpha-709
Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Marc Soustrot
Naxos, 2015, 8.573138
Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Marc Soustrot
Animato, 2010, ACD 6118
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Marc Soustrot
Timpani, 2008, 1C1135
Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn, Marc Soustrot
MDG Gold, 2002, MDG 337 1099-2