Opéra de Toulon Names Music Director

The French conductor Victorien Vanoosten will step into the role

France's Opéra de Toulon has been without a Music Director since the departure of Jurjen Hempel in 2021, with Marzena Diakun and Valério Galli being the company's principal conductors. Conductor Victorien Vanoosten will be its new Music Director starting at the end of January.

A former assistant conductor to Daniel Barenboim at Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Vanoosten is Director of Switzerland's Ensemble Symphonique de Neuchâtel. He is also the principal conductor of DEMOS, a French social project and equivalent ensemble to El Sistema founded by Philharmonie de Paris.

Highlights of his current season include his Vienna Musikverein debut with the Tonkünstler orchestra, returns to the Polish National Radio Symphony and the Lithuanian National Symphony, a new production of Carmen at Opéra de Marseille, and the debut at the helm of the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal, with Emmanuel Pahud as soloist.

"I am happy about this new experience that starts with the support of Jérôme Brunetière and the cooperation of the musicians in the orchestra," said Vanoosten. "I am on the other hand delighted to start the adventure with a French opera that I particularly love, Thaïs, surrounded by international artists such as Amina Edris and Josef Wagner, and I hope that the beautiful projects that are coming will take this House to strong traditions to its highest artistic radiance."

For his part, added, "The creation of a musical director position will allow the development of the Orchestra and its ambitions by relying on the talent and enthusiasm of the conductor," said Jérôme Brunetière, the company's General and Artistic Director. "The Opéra de Toulon is very honored by the confidence Victorien Vanoosten gives by accepting this position."