“It is wonderful to hear the singers and the excellent orchestra in such an acoustically lively house. The conductor Marc Piollet drew a warm, glowing and surging account of the great score from the inspired players.” – International New York Times

Conductor Marc Piollet, born in Paris in 1962, studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Master-classes with John Eliot Gardiner, Michael Gielen and Kurt Masur had a formative influence on his musical development. In 1995 Marc Piollet was the only prize-winner at the Dirigenten-Forum of the Deutscher Musikrat. After early posts as First Kapellmeister at the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle and the Staatstheater Kassel he was Music Director of the Vienna Volksoper from 2003 until 2005. From 2004 until 2012 he was General Music Director at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden where he conducted acclaimed performances of Wagner’s complete Ring and new productions including Don Carlos, Elektra, Falstaff, Faust, Fidelio, Freischutz, ldomeneo, La Boheme, Lohengrin, Lulu, Rosenkavalier, Salome, Tristan and Isolde and Tosca.

As guest conductor he has worked with leading opera houses including the Royal Opera in Copenhagen (La Boheme with Anna Netrebko as Mimi), Opera National de Paris (Il barbiere di Siviglia, Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Rolando Villazon in the title role), Staatstheater Stuttgart (Jenufa, Cosi fan tutte, Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung) and the Vienna State Opera (Barbiere). At the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona he conducted Carmen staged by Calixto Bieito, the production was released on DVD by Unitel Classica/C major. In 2012 he made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera during the Munich Opera Festival with Les conies d’Hoffmann. In the following season he opened the legendary Teatro Colon’s season with a revival of Carmen. At the beginning of the 13/14 season he conducted Dietrich Hilsdorf’s much-noticed new production of Evgeny Onegin at the Opera Cologne. In June 2014 he made his much acclaimed opera debut in the USA at the Cincinnati Opera (Carmen). During the 14/15 season the Deutsche Oper am Rhein will present two productions with him: The Magic Flute and Martin Schlapfer’s ballet b.23 featuring music by Johannes Brahms. Moreover, he will conduct The Merry Widow at Opera Cologne and, in 2015, La Boheme at his former domain, the Vienna Volksoper.

Over the last years he established a close collaboration with Teatro Real in Madrid where he led Massenet’s Don Quichotte and C(h)oeurs, a production of Belgian choreographer Alain Platel featuring music by Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner. Tour performances with C(h)oeurs took place at the Concertgebouw in Bruges, the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Ludwigsburg Festival, the Holland Festival and the Festspielhaus St. Pölten. In the past season he conducted two new productions at Teatro Real: L’elisir d’amore and Peter Sellars’ spectacular staging of Tristan und Isolde. In October he will return for a concert with Piotr Beczata with whom he also performed in July 2014 at the Festival Castell de Peralada.

Apart from his highly successful work as an opera conductor he is in high demand also for the symphonic repertoire, giving concerts with renowned orchestras worldwide including the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, the Munich Philharmonic and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. After his much acclaimed debut with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra he was immediately reinvited and excited the Canadian audience upon his return with his own arrangement of a symphonic suite from Wagner’s Gotterdammerung. In 2012 he conducted an all-Beethoven-program at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with Lang Lang and the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, For many years he has been enjoying a close artistic collaboration with Annette Dasch: in 2008 a recording of Mozart Arias with the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin was released by Sony, also noteworthy are the tours with the Munich Radio Orchestra and the joint production “Die Gretchenfrage” which will be released in September 2014 on DVD and Blu-ray by EuroArts. In spring 2014 he made his China debut with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights of the 14-15 season include his concert debut in the USA with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as well as performances with the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Staatsorchester Kassel, the Stuttgart Philharmonic (in connection with a tour through Germany) and the Ludwigsburg Festival.

Being passionate about supporting young orchestra musicians, Marc Piollet regularly conducts projects with the Junge Sinfonie Berlin, a youth orchestra which he founded whilst still being a student. During his tenure as General Music Director in Wiesbaden he actively supported the establishment of the Orchestra Academy of the Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden; since 2010 this academy is a platform where talented young musicians can gain worthwhile orchestra experience.