L’Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie Appoints New Music Director 

Conductor Roderick Cox will assume the role in the 2024/25 concert season

As of September 2024, France’s Opéra Orchestre National de Montpellier Occitanie will welcome Roderick Cox to its post of music director. He will succeed Michael Schønwandt, who held the principal conductor role from 2015 to 2023.

Cox has conducted the opera orchestra on multiple occasions in both orchestral and opera performances; he will return in May 2024 to lead the opera company’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème.

Collaborating with internationally renowned ensembles, Cox’s upcoming engagements include returns to the Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Halle Orchestra, Lahti Sinfonia, WDR Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He will also go on tour with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, plus return to the Aspen Music Festival Chamber Orchestra this summer. 

Since making his debut with the English National Opera in 2024 with Rossini’s Barber of Seville, he has conducted the Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Washington National Opera.

Other highlights have included performing with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Last season, Cox made his Canadian debuts with Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and the National Arts Centre.

Winner of the 2018 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award by the U.S Solti Foundation, Cox attended the Schwob School of Music and Northwestern University. In 2013, he won the Conducting Prize from the Aspen Music Festival and has held fellowships with the Chicago Sinfonietta. In 2016, he was appointed associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, under Osmo Vänskä.

“I am absolutely thrilled to announce my appointment as Music Director of Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier beginning in September 2024,” Cox posted on Facebook. “From the very beginning I felt a special connection with the players and the institution — we were able to establish very quickly a level of trust, which allowed us to freely make music and produce fantastic performances for our audience. I very much look forward to the bright and exciting future of projects with my new musical family!”