Biography

French conductor Lionel Bringuier was named Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich in 2012 at age twenty-six. Previously resident conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic for six years, Mr. Bringuier also served a three-season tenure as music director of Spain’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. He studied cello with Philippe Muller and conducting with Zsolt Nagy at the Paris Conservatory. Mr. Bringuier has also participated in master classes with composer and conductor Péter Eötvös and János Fürst. He made his professional debut at age of fourteen, conducting a live concert on French national television; his success in Besançon at age nineteen launched his career.

This season with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Mr. Bringuier collaborates with Péter Eötvös, as well as the Austrian percussionist Martin Grubinger, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich Artist-in-Residence. In autumn 2016, Mr. Bringuier embarked on an international concert tour to South America with the Tonhalle Orchestra, violinist Lisa Batiashvili, and pianist Nelson Freire.

Additional 2016-17 season engagements include Mr. Bringuier’s debut at the Opéra National de Paris conducting Bizet's Carmen, and return appearances with the Munich Philharmonic, NDR Radio Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Vienna Symphony. He recently made debuts with the Camerata Salzburg at the Salzburg Festival and with the National Symphony in Wolf Trap. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2014.

Mr. Bringuier regularly conducts the works of living composers, and he led the world premieres of Bernard Rands's Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra with soloist Robert Walters and the Cleveland Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Karawane with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. This season, Mr. Bringuier leads the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and harpist Xavier Maistre in the premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Trans. 

Mr. Bringuier has recorded two Ravel compilations on Deutsche Grammophon, including a complete survey of the composer’s orchestral works, with performances by Yuja Wang and Ray Chen. Mr. Bringuier and Nelson Freire are featured on a Decca CD release of works by Chopin, as well as a DVD of Mr. Bringuier’s debut at the BBC Proms. With violinist Renaud Capuçon and cellist Gautier Capuçon, Mr. Bringuier released an album of Saint-Saëns’s concertos on the Erato label.

Mr. Bringuier’s distinctions include the Médaille d’or à l’unanimité avec les felicitations du jury à l’Académie Prince Rainier III de Monaco and the Médaille d’or from the City of Nice. He has also received prizes from the Swiss Foundation Langart and the Cziffra Foundation.

(January 2017)