Rhorer Jérémie

Biography

The young conductor Jérémie Rhorer has been named Discovery of the Year 2008 by the French critics. Wherever he performs, he is praised for his theatrical sensibility, his subtle musicality, and his excellent technique.
Born in Paris in 1973, Rhorer studied harpsichord, theory and composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris.
He assisted Marc Minkowski and William Christie at a young age. At 21, he formed the contemporary music ensemble Les Musiciens de la Prée. In 2005, together with violinist Julien Chauvin, he founded Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, an orchestra which performs on period instruments and focuses on the music of the late 18th century.

In 2006, Jérémie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie caught the attention of a wider public as they electrified audiences with their performances of Idomeneo at the Festival International d’Opéra Baroque in Beaune. Since then, they have consistently offered a new highlight at the festival each year. Their natural, fluid and yet theatrically feverish concert version of Le Nozze di Figaro (Beaune 2007) also triumphed in its repeat performances at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Furthermore, 2008 was marked by the celebrated appearance of Rhorer and his orchestra at the Festival d’Aixen-Provence, where they performed Haydn’s opera L’infedeltà delusa, which will be on tour until March 2010. Rhorer was honoured with the Prix Gabriel Dussurget, which is awarded to excellent young Mozart interpreters.

Jérémie Rhorer regularly works with well known singers, such as Diana Damrau and Philippe Jaroussky, and has already conducted a number of major orchestras, including the orchestras of the Opéra Bastille, the Opéra de Lyon and the Opéra de Rouen and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He gave an impressive US debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia with works of Rameau and Debussy in 2008 and for the first time, he conducted the Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie with Le nozze di Figaro with great success in 2009. He recorded several CDs with Diana Damrau, Philippe Jaroussky and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie for Virgin Classic/EMI which received excellent reviews.

Jérémie Rhorer has also earned himself a name as a composer. He is a winner of the Pierre Cardin Composition Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and he has had works commissioned by the French Radio. His complete chamber music compositions were performed at the festival in La Roche-Posay in 2006. In November 2008, the orchestral version of his piano work Le cimetière des enfants was premiered by the Orchestre National de Paris.

In the season 2009/10 Jérémie Rhorer will appear together with Le Cercle de l’Harmonie at the Musikfest Bremen with Così fan tutte and L’infedeltà delusa as well as at the Palace of Versailles and Opéra Comique with Gretry’s L’Amant Jaloux. He will perform Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel and The Seven Deadly Sins (soloist: Angelika Kirchschlager) with the Ensemble Modern in a new production by the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
Moreover, he will continue his co-operation with the Théâtre de la Monnaie with Mozart’s Idomeneo and give his debut with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Schwetzingen Festival. A highlight of the season will be his first appearance at the Salzburg Festival 2010 where he will conduct a Mozart matinee with the Mozarteum Orchestra.

The Théâtre des Champs-Elysées invites him and his Cercle de l’Harmonie to lead a new Mozart festival, presenting three Mozart operas on stage, starting with Idomeneo in 2011, followed by Cosi fan tutte in 2012 and Don Giovanni in 2013.
Among many other projects, he will conduct the Wiener Philharmoniker in Cosi fan tutte at the Wiener Staatsoper in January 2011 and le Cercle de l’Harmonie in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2012.