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Currently Musical Director of the Opera National de Paris and designated Chief Conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker beginning September 2014, Philippe Jordan has at 37 already established himself as one of the most gifted and exciting conductors of his generation.
Philippe Jordan's musical education began with piano lessons at the age of six. At the age of eight, he joined the Zurich Sängerknaben and he was eleven when he began studying violin. At sixteen, he entered the Zurich Conservatory where he obtained his diploma of piano teacher with honors. He studied theory and composition with the Swiss composer Hans Ulrich Lehmann and continued his piano studies with Karl Engel. At the same time, he worked as assistant to Maestro Jeffrey Tate on Wagner's Ring Cycle at the Châtelet in Paris. He continues to appear occasionally as pianist in recital and chamber music.
His career began in 1994/95 as Kapellmeister of the Ulm Stadttheater. From 1998-2001, he was assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin. From 2001-2004, he held the position of Chief Conductor of the Graz Opera and Graz Philharmonic Orchestra. In this period he made his debut at several prestigious international Opera houses and festivals, the Houston Grand Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, the Salzburger Festspiele (Così fan tutte), the Wiener Staatsoper and the Festspielhaus Baden Baden (Tannhäuser). From 2006-2010, he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Berlin Staatsoper unter den Linden.
Philippe Jordan's orchestral engagements have included the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Staatskapelle, Vienna Symphony, Vienna RSO, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Tonhalle Zurich, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, NDR/Hamburg Symphony, DSO Berlin, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In North America, he has appeared with the Seattle, St. Louis, Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington, Minnesota, Montreal, New York and San Francisco Orchestras.
In the 2008-2009 season, Philippe Jordan conducted the complete Ring cycle of Wagner at the Zurich Opera (Robert Wilson production) as well as making his concert debut at Teatro alla Scala.
Highlights of the 2010-2011 season include the second half of a new Ring cycle at the Opera National de Paris, and concerts with the NDR Hamburg, as well as with the Wiener Symphoniker and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. In 2011-2012, Philippe Jordan made his opera debut at the Teatro alla Scala (Der Rosenkavalier). Then, during the same season, he will participate in the Bayreuth Festival (Parsifal) and he will conduct, on the symphonic podium, concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.
Philippe Jordan has recorded Carmen (Glyndebourne Festival), Werther (Wiener Staatsoper), Doktor Faust (Zurich Opera), Salomé (Covent Garden) and Tannhäuser (Baden Baden) in DVD format. He has also recorded for Naïve the complete Beethoven Piano concerto with François-Frédéric Guy and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France as well as the Strauss Alpensymphonie with the Opéra National de Paris Orchestra awarded "CHOC de l'année - Classica".