Raphaël Pichon

RAPHAËL PICHON (conductor) studied violin and piano at the Conservatoire de Rayonnement Régional in Versailles, and graduated in conducting from the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris, under Pierre Cao. Pichon has a passion for German music – from Schütz to Brahms – and his wide repertoire includes compositions from early Baroque to modern works. In 2006, he founded the ensemble Pygmalion. With Pygmalion, he focuses on the oeuvre of Jean-Philippe Rameau, whose operas Dardanus, Hippolyte et Aricie and Castor et Pollux he has performed at the Festival international d’opéra baroque de Beaune. Alongside his work with Pygmalion, Pichon conducts work by composers like Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Stravinsky. In 2010, he conducted a new production of Florian Gassmann’s L’operia seria for Opéra de Nantes, and in 2011 he conducted a staging of the St John Passion with Holland Baroque for the Nederlandse Reisopera. In 2012, he made his debut with the Stavanger Symfonieorkester with Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and in the summer of 2014 he conducted Bach’s cantatas in Trauernacht in Katie Mitchell’s production for the Aix-en-Provence Festival and in 2015 for Dutch National Opera talent (ENOA) and the Stadsschouwburg.