French conductor Louis Langrée was named director of the Théâtre national de l’Opéra Comique in 2021 by French President Emmanuel Macron. Following 10 successful years as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Langrée has been appointed music director laureate, with his first return to the orchestra in this role scheduled for the 2025–2026 season.
In the 2024–2025 season, Mr. Langrée brings l’Opéra Comique to Lille, France, with a production of Gounod’s Faust. On the symphonic stage, he conducts Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Bremen, Lubeck, and Hamburg; in addition, he leads the Juilliard Orchestra in a program of works by Ravel, and returns to the Interlochen and Ravinia festivals. Recent highlights include performances of Thomas’s Hamlet; performances of new works by Jonathan Bailey Holland, Bryce Dessner, and Anthony Davis with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; and Carmen with l’Opéra Comique at the Edinburgh International Festival.
A regular presence in New York since his 1998 debut, Mr. Langrée has conducted approximately 250 performances and concerts at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Metropolitan Opera, and New York Philharmonic. Guest-conducting engagements have included performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Vienna and Czech philharmonics; London Philharmonic Orchestra; Philadelphia, Budapest Festival, and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras; NHK Symphony Orchestra; Orchestre National de France; Orchestre de Paris; Orchestre des Champs-Élysées; Freiburg Barockorchester; and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In addition to the Met, he frequently conducts at such leading opera houses as the Vienna and Bavarian state operas; Teatro alla Scala; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as at festivals that include Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence, BBC Proms, Edinburgh International, Hong Kong Arts, Wiener Festwochen, Salzburg Mozartwoche, and Whitsun.
An advocate for the music of our time, Mr. Langrée has conducted world premieres by Julia Adolphe, Daníel Bjarnason, Anna Clyne, Guillaume Connesson, Jonathan Bailey Holland, David Lang, Nico Muhly, André Previn, Christopher Rouse, Caroline Shaw, and Julia Wolfe.