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France’s premier symphony orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris gives over one hundred concerts in Paris each season or during its international tours. Successor to the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire which was founded in 1828, the Orchestre de Paris gave its inaugural concert in November 1967 conducted by its first Musical Director, Charles Munch. The likes of Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, and Daniel Harding have succeeded Munch over the years, with the exceptional young Klaus Mäkelä set to take over as musical director in 2022.
In 1976, Arthur Oldham founded the Choir of the Orchestre de Paris which he directed until 2002. Lionel Sow took up the direction in 2011 giving the choir a new dynamic by creating several different vocal ensembles, each with its own pedagogical identity: Childrens’ Choir, Youth Choir, the Academy, the Chamber Choir and the Main Choir.
The orchestra’s musical tradition favours nineteenth and twentieth century repertories as well as contemporary music. Young music lovers are at the heart of the Orchestre de Paris’s priorities, with a large range of pedagogical activities (educational or family concerts, open rehearsals, workshops, residential classes, initiation courses…) open to schools and families as early as four years old, as well as to audiences with limited access to music.
Released in 2014, the DVD ‘Elektra’(Bel Air Classiques) recorded at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July 2013, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen received a Grammy Award. The Erato label released a Dutilleux CD in 2015 conducted by Paavo Järvi which won a number of awards (Diapason d’Or, Choc Classica, and ffff Telerama), as did a double Rachmaninoff CD, again conducted by Paavo Järvi.
As a means of making the orchestra’s talents available to the largest public possible, the orchestra has considerably developed its audiovisual policy over the past few years by creating partnerships with Radio Classique, France Musique, Arte, Mezzo, Classical Live/Google Play music and France Télévisions.
The Orchestre de Paris, with its 119 musicians, is financed by the French Ministry of Culture and The City of Paris since the orchestra’s creation.
Eurogroup Consulting principal sponsor, supports the symphonic season of the Orchestre de Paris. The Young Public activities of the orchestra receive the support of the Caisse d’Epargne d’Ile-de- France and of the Cercle de l’Orchestre de Paris.
