Laurence Equilbey

Conductor and musical director of Insula orchestra and accentus chorus, Laurence Equilbey is acknowledged for her demanding, yet open-minded approach to her art. Her exploration of the symphonic repertoire has seen her conducting the orchestras of Lyon, Bucharest, Hessischer Rundfunk, Goteborg, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, the philharmonic orchestras of Liège, Leipzig, Francfort, etc.

Laurence Equilbey has studied music in Paris, Vienna and London, and conducting with Eric Ericson, Denise Ham, Colin Metters and Jorma Panula.

She is an associate artist of the Paris Chamber Orchestra, a resident artist of the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence, an associate artist of the Opera de Rouen Haute Normandie (with accentus), a companion of the Cité de la musique/Philharmonie de Paris and Artistic Director and Director of Education at the Department for Young Singers at the Paris Conservatory.

In 2012, with support from the Conseil général des Hauts-de-Seine, she founded Insula orchestra, an ensemble devoted to the classical and pre-Romantic repertoire, using period instruments. From 2017, Laurence Equilbey will be responsible for programing a classical music series of about 30 concerts per season at the Auditorium of La Seine Musicale, featuring concerts of both the Insula orchestra and international guest ensembles. The new Paris arts centre, designed by Shigeru Ban on an island in the Seine at the south west side of Paris, will be launched in April 2017.

Laurence Equilbey’s extensive recorded work on the naïve lQabel has received wide critical acclaim. In September 2015, she released her first CD for Deutsche Grammophon of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, with acclaimed countertenor Franco Fagioli and sopranos Malin Hartelius and Emmanuelle de Negri. She will release this year the recently uncovered score of Gounod Saint Francois d’Assise, and will further record for the Warner label some lieder by Schubert orchestrated by Liszt, Brahms, Strauss, Berlioz etc. for the Warner label.

Laurence Equilbey is also an accomplished opera conductor. Past operatic engagements comprise Mozart’s Lucio Silla (Theater an der Wien), Reynaldo Hahn's Ciboulette (Opéra Comique), Britten’s Albert Herring (Opéra de Rouen Haute-Normandie and Opéra Comique), Weber’s Der Freischütz (Opéra de Toulon), Sous apparence (Opéra de Paris) and Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice (Cite de la Musique), Die Zauberflöte (Avignon Opera). In 2018, she will be conducting a newly commissioned production of La Nonne Sanglante at the Opera Comique to celebrate Gounod’s 200th birthday.

Highlights of Laurence Equilbey’s upcoming concerts include the 200th anniversary concert of Niels Gade with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choir (Feb. 2017, recorded for audio release and filmed for the Danish TV), the opening gala concert of La Seine Musicale featuring Sandrine Piau (April 2017), Haydn’s Creation in an astonishing version staged by the catalan group Fura Dels Baus (March, May & June 2017), Beethoven’s Egmont (Sept. 2017), tour in Poland & Germany (Nov. and Dec. 2017), Brahms’ German Requiem by Thomas Hampson and the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Jan. 2018), to name just a few projects.