Marc Minkowski

Marc Minkowski was born in Paris in 1962. He began his musical career as a bassoonist, playing both in modern orchestras and in such period-instrument ensembles as Les Arts Florissants, the Clemencic Consort of Vienna and La Chapelle Royale. He gained his initial conducting experience in France and subsequently studied with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux Conducting School in Hancock, Maine.
1982 Forms Les Musiciens du Louvre, a Paris-based period-instrument ensemble with whom he has since achieved success both in concerts and recordings, champion¬ing music by Marais, Mouret, Charpentier, Lully and Rameau, and reviving interest in lesser-known Handel operas as well as several operas by Gluck
1984 Wins First Prize at the first International Early Music Competition in Bruges
1990 Awarded the Orphée d’or as “Best Young Conductor” by the French Académie du disque lyrique
1993 Conducts Lully’s Phaéton for the official reopening of the Lyon Opéra
1994 Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre sign an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv Produktion
1995 First CD release: Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du disque, Grand Prix des discophiles, 1995; Cannes Classical Award, CD Compact, Barcelona, Diapason d’or, Orphée d’or, 1996)
1996 Conducts Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Paris Opéra and Don Giovanni in Toronto; CD releases: Handel’s La resurrezione (Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du disque, Grand Prix des discophiles, 1996) and Rameau’s Anacréon and Le Ber¬ger fidèle
1997 Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre move to Grenoble and join forces with the Orchestre de chambre de Grenoble; Minkowski makes his highly acclaimed Salzburg Festival debut with Mozart’s Entführung; tours the Netherlands with Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer; CD releases: Charpentier’s Te Deum and Messe de Minuit; Handel’s Ariodante (Cannes Classical Award, Classic CD Award, 1999)
1998 CD releases: Mondonville’s 6 Sonatas op. 3; Lully’s Acis et Galatée
1998/1999 Conducts Weber’s Oberon and Massenet’s Cendrillon as Music Director of De Vlaamse Opera
1999 Concert performances of Rameau’s Platée in Salzburg and Monteverdi’s L’inco¬ronazione di Poppea at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; CD releases: Gluck’s Armide; Roman Motets (including Dixit Dominus) and Messiah highlights (soundtrack from William Klein’s film Le Messie)
2000 European tour with Handel’s Hercules; begins a traversal of the complete Beet¬hoven Symphonies with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; Los Angeles Philhar¬monic debut with Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique; CD releases: Rameau’s Dardanus (Diapason d’or, 2000; Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 2001) and Italian Cantatas by Handel, featuring Magdalena Kožená
2001 Conducts Handel’s Ariodante with Anne Sofie von Otter and Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble in Paris, Grenoble, Dresden and Salzburg; with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducts Le nozze di Figaro at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; conducts Die Fledermaus at the Salzburg Festival and Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Netherlands Opera; CD releases: Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride (Diapason d’or, 2001; Echo Award, Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 2002) and the complete Messiah
2002 CD releases of Handel’s Hercules (Diapason d’or and Choc du Monde de la musique, 2002) and of a collection of arias and scenes by Offenbach, both with Anne Sofie von Otter and Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble
2003 Performances include Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Lausanne; conduct¬ing debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with the City of Birmingham Symphony and Mahler Chamber orchestras; with Les Musi¬ciens du Louvre – Grenoble directs productions of Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Ruhr Triennale Festi¬val and Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène at the Châtelet in Paris; conducts Auber’s Le Domino noir in Italy with the Orchestra of La Fenice. CD releases include Han¬del’s Giulio Cesare (Diapason d’or and Record Acad¬emy Prize, Tokyo, 2003), Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Herminie with the combined forces of Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble and Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Preis der Deut¬schen Schallplattenkritik, 2003) as well as a collection of French arias featuring Magdalena Kožená (Gramophone Award, 2004)
2004 Conducts Mozart’s Entführung at Aix-en-Provence and Handel’s Semele in Paris and Acis and Galatea in Brussels, Grenoble, Madrid and Oviedo; with the Zürich Opera, more Handel – Il trionfo del tempo with Cecilia Bartoli – as well as Rameau’s Les Boréades; further performances of Die Entführung in Rouen with the Orchestre Léonard de Vinci; returns to Birmingham for concerts with the CBSO; the year finishes with Offenbach’s Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein at the Châtelet. CD release: Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice
2005 Opens the New Year with the Dresden Staatskapelle at the Semperoper perform¬ing Offenbach, Johann Strauss and Waldteufel; engagements include Mozart’s Zauberflöte in Paris and Madrid, Beethoven’s Leonore in Paris, Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Lyon and Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Zürich; at the Salz¬burg Festival with Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble he conducts Mozart’s Mitridate; a European Handel tour features Acis and Galatea and Il trionfo del tempo; con¬certs with the Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre de Paris, RSO Frankfurt, Deut¬sches Symphonie-Orchester of Berlin and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlighten¬ment; CD release: “Une Symphonie imaginaire”, orchestral music by Rameau with Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble
2006 Mozart in Salzburg, including orchestral works with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Salzburg Camerata, and Mitridate with Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble whom he also conducts in an all-Offenbach programme in Grenoble; in Paris Rameau’s Platée and Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Palais Garnier, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Britten’s Phaedra with Jessye Norman at the Châtelet; Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo and Donizetti’s La favorita for Zürich Opera and concerts of 19th- and 20th-century works with the Cleve¬land Orchestra, SWR Sinfonieorchester and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. CD release this year: Mozart’s last two symphonies with Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble
4/2006