Orchestre Ostinato Announces New Collective of Artistic Directors

The French training orchestra for young musicians will be led by Jean-François Heisser, Chloé Dufresne, Julien Leroy, Anne Gastinel, and Pierre Fouchenneret

Orchestre Ostinato, a French "springboard" orchestra for players aged between 18 and 25, has announced a new approach to its leadership. Instead of appointing a single Artistic Director, the orchestra will be run by a collective of five professional players. They are Jean-François Heisser, Chloé Dufresne, Julien Leroy, Anne Gastinel, and Pierre Fouchenneret.

Founded in 1997 by Jean-Luc Tingaud and Gilles Demonet, and following the idea of Manuel Rosenthal, Orchestre Ostinato provides 80 young musicians with paid training. The orchestra gives between 20 and 30 concerts each year, with the goal of equipping these young musicians for their future lives in professional orchestras.

The ensemble has opted for a leadership collective in order to expand its work across a more diverse range of repertoire and projects. The ultimate aim is to offer repertoire from baroque music through to contemporary music and to offer chamber music, opera, concerti, and other such genres alongside traditional orchestral programming.

Each of the five members of the new collective offers different strengths to the young musicians.

Pianist and conductor Jean-François Heisser is the Musical Director of the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle Aquitaine and the founder of the Ravel Festival. Conductor Chloé Dufresne trained at the prestigious Sibelius Academy, and has won several prestigious competitions including the Malko and the Besançon. She is presently the assistant to Gustavo Dudamel at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Conductor Julien Leroy began his career as assistant conductor of Ensemble Intercontemporain and at the Lucerne Festival. He is currently the principal conductor of the United Instruments of Lucilin. Cellist Anne Gastinel has
performed alongside some of the greatest names in the music world, including Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovitch, and Kurt Sanderling. She was the recipient of the Victoire de la Musique award and teaches at the CNSMD in Lyon.

Finally, violinist Pierre Fouchenneret has made more than twenty recordings and frequently appears as a soloist with major international orchestras. In 2013 he founded Quatuor Strada with François Salque, Sarah Nemtanu, and Lise Berthaud.