the orchestra

Founded in 2011 by conductor Claire Gibault, the Paris Mozart Orchestra (PMO) is a unique artistic enterprise – committed, daring and unanimous in its sense of purpose. Through challenging and innovative programming, commissioning and outreach, the PMO champions both classical and contemporary music while advancing the appeal and accessibility of all the arts in a generous spirit of open-hearted partnership.

Boldly exploring every new horizon, profoundly engaged and alive to every audience, the PMO is an orchestra like no other.

excellence for everyone

Alongside their performances at such prestigious international concert halls as the Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium National de Lyon, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, the PMO and Claire Gibault are equally at home in prisons, hospitals and schools.

To be a member of the orchestra is not only to participate in an exciting musical adventure; it is a way to share in and champion the strongest of humanitarian values, reaching out to the very young, the underprivileged and the alienated. Every year some 50% of the PMO’s activities are devoted to educational or social projects. Meaningful artistic choices are inseparable from a strong social commitment.

Showcasing the talents of the outstanding musicians of the PMO – each of them a soloist or chamber music player – lies at the very heart of the project. And the PMO strives to maintain an equal number of women in principal positions, visibly promoting, encouraging and exemplifying greater inclusion and diversity.

The orchestra collaborates both with world-class artists – most recently soprano Véronique Gens and pianist Maria João Pires – and with such outstanding young soloists as pianists Isata Kanneh-Mason, Adam Laloum and Nathalia Milstein, and mezzo soprano Victoire Bunel.

creations

A powerful advocate of contemporary music, PMO artistic director Claire Gibault commissions each season a new multimedia melologue from a distinguished composer (so far Fabio Vacchi, Silvia Colasanti, Graciane Finzi, Édith Canat de Chizy, Philippe Hersant, Alexandra Grimal, Benoît Menut…) creating and expanding a unique, original and highly evocative repertory designed as much to enthral today’s music lovers and concert goers as to inspire and challenge the young participants in the orchestra’s award-winning educational arts and culture project “Orchestre Au Bahut”, a laureate of “La France S’Engage”. In 2023/24 the young composer Manon Lepauvre will be composer in residence at the PMO.

looking back

In recent seasons the orchestra has performed at the Philharmonie de Paris, Stresa Festival (Italy), French May Arts Festival (Hong Kong), Folle Journée de Nantes and Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence. In its 10th-anniversary season 2021/22 the orchestra was invited by the Festival Internacional Cervantino for a 10-day Mexican tour, and in Europe gave performances at the Teatro Palladium Rome, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, de Doelen Rotterdam, Polish Radio Auditorium and Auditorium National de Lyon, while appearing throughout the season at the Cité de la Musique – Philharmonie de Paris.

A fervent advocate of gender equality in the classical music industry, in 2020 the PMO joined forces with the Philharmonie de Paris to create, administer and develop La Maestra International Competition and Academy for Women Conductors – which returns triumphantly for its 3rd biennial edition in March 2024. The PMO and Claire Gibault also play an important and unique role in many events, master classes, encounters and concerts organized in support of the new generation of women conductors, both in France and abroad.

looking ahead

In 2023/24 the PMO continues its new artistic residency in Bourges and throughout the Centre-Val de Loire region with a second season of concerts and open rehearsals at the Maison de la Culture de Bourges, masterclasses at the Conservatoire, the PMO’s “Orchestre Au Bahut” educational program deployed in a dozen schools and high schools, projects at the city’s psychiatric hospital and nursing homes and a new partnership with the local prison. Other highlights this season include the 3rd edition of the La Maestra Competition at the Philharmonie de Paris, a major education project around the Cultural Olympiad in the Île-de-France and Centre-Val de Loire regions, and concerts at the Festival Berlioz, at Les Invalides and at the Cité de la Musique – Philharmonie de Paris.

The PMO’s first recording featured the melologue Soudain dans la Forêt Profonde, a setting by Fabio Vacchi of words by Amos Oz. Their second CD, Pictures of America with Natalie Dessay, was released by Sony in December 2016. Inspired by the paintings of the American realist Edward Hopper, it includes works by Graciane Finzi and Samuel Barber alongside a selection of American jazz classics. For their third CD the orchestra collaborated with graphic novelist Sandrine Revel, 2016 winner of the prestigious Prix Artemisia for her graphic novel Glenn Gould, a life off tempo. Inspired in many ways by Claire Gibault and the PMO, Revel’s acclaimed Pygmalion was published in France in May 2018 featuring an included CD of Georg Benda’s melodrama Pygmalion performed by the PMO. In October 2022 the orchestra released the first episode of its podcast hear the smile, with Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto performed by PMO solo clarinetist Carjez Gerretsen.

Without them, the very essence of the PMO project and Claire Gibault’s vision would not be possible: a warm thank you to our partners and sponsors for their support. 

Photos © Caroline Doutre / CIC

our musicians

Éric
Lacrouts
Concertmaster
Anne-Lise
Durantel
Co-principal violin
Clara
Danchin
Violin
Sonja
Alisinani
Violin
Léa
Valentin
violin
Eléonore
Denarié
Violon
Mattia
Sanguineti
Principal second violin
Cécile
Galy
Violin
Clémence
Labarrière
Violin
Bertrand
Kulik
violin
Sébastien
Levy
principal viola
François
Martigné
Viola
Marie
Lèbre
Viola
Benjamin
Fabre
Viola
Damien
Ventula
Solo cello
Raphaël
Jouan
Cello
Angèle
Martin
Cello
Héloïse
Dély
Solo double bass
Chloé
Paté
Double bass
Gerard
McFadden
Double bass
Hélène
Dusserre
Principal flute
Nicolas
N'Haux
Flute
Guillaume
Pierlot
Principal oboe
Vincent
Arnoult
Oboe
Carjez
Gerretsen
Principal Clarinet
Emmanuelle
Brunat
Clarinet
Médéric
Debacq
Principal bassoon
Yannick
Mariller
Bassoon
Camille
Lebréquier
Principal horn
Pierre
Remondière
Horn
Julien
Lair
Principal trumpet
David
Riva
Trumpet
Étienne
Lamatelle
Principal trombone
Jean-Charles
Dupuis
Trombone
Barthélémy
Jusselme
Tuba
Cécile
Beune
Principal Timpani
Matthieu
Chardon
Percussions

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