Lauren Petitgirard, president

Born in 1950, Laurent Petitgirard studied the piano with Serge Petitgirard and composition with Alain Kremski. An eclectic musician, his career as a composer of symphonic music (more than twenty works) and of film music (150 scores) is matched by his activity as a guest conductor the world over (Paris Opera Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte- Carlo, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Bamberger Philharmoniker, Berliner Symphoniker, Orchestras of the Tonhalle, La Fenice, BBC, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic & CBS Orchestras, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, National Orchestra of Spain, etc.).In 1989 he founded the Orchestre Symphonique Français which he conducted until 1996, also directing, from 1986 to 1997, the Festival and the Academy of Flaine (Haute-Savoie).

In December 2004 he was elected music director of the Orchestre Colonne in Paris.

Laurent Petitgirard has made some thirty records, notably of Honegger’s Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher and several world premiere recordings, including Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit in the orchestration by Marius Constant. For the record label Chant du Monde he recorded his Cello Concerto with the cellist Gary Hoffman and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and Le Légendaire for violin, chorus and orchestra, with, as soloist, the work’s dedicatee, Augustin Dumay.

Laurent Petitgirard’s first opera, Joseph Merrick dit Elephant Man, with a libretto by Eric Nonn, was first performed in French, in February 2002 at the Prague State Opera, conducted by himself, with stage direction by Daniel Mesguich.

Laurent Petitgirard recorded the opera with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and with Nathalie Stutzmann in the title role (Naxos). The opera was restaged at Nice Opera from 29 November to 3 December 2002. A DVD of a live performance in Nice was released by the label Marco Polo and is to be broadcast in 2005 on TF1 and Mezzo. A new production of this opera has beenpresented in May 2006 by Minneapolis Opera.

Laurent Petitgirard recorded, with the Orchestre National de France, in late April 2003, his Poème for large string orchestra, which he also conducted in November 2003 in the course of a tour in the Netherlands with the Brabant Orchestra. In April 2004 he conducted two concerts at the Opéra Bastille in Paris with the Paris Opera Orchestra (Gance-Honegger- Constant, Napoléon). Laurent Petitgirard continues to collaborate on a regular basis with the Berliner Symphoniker, which he conducted twice in the 2004-2005 season (Beethoven-Brahms concerts).

After Le Fou d'Elsa, a cycle of six songs to poems by Aragon for mezzo and orchestra, his latest works include Le Plus Ardent à Vivre (septet with harp, premiered by the soloist Marielle Nordmann), Poème for large string orchestra and Dialogue for viola and orchestra, which he recorded in September 2005 with the Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine and the viola player Gérard Caussé. Laurent Petitgirard has just completed the composition of a symphonic poem, Les Douze Gardiens du Temple (commissioned by Radio-France) which he premiered with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg at the Présences Festival in February 2006 in Paris. He has just begun work on his second opera, Guru, to a libretto he wrote in collaboration with Xavier Maurel (to be premiered by Nice Opera in 2008 with stage direction by Daniel Mesguich). Since 1984 his works have been published by Éditions Durand.

Laurent Petitgirard received the Young Composer’s Prize of the SACD in 1987, the SACEM Prize in 1990, the Grand Prix Lycéen for Composers in 2000 for his Cello Concerto and the Prix Musique 2001 of the SACD for his opera Joseph Merrick dit Elephant Man. In December 2000 he was elected Member of the French Institute, in the seat of Marcel Landowski at the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Between june 2003 and june 2005, he was president of the board of Sacem (French Authors ,Composers and Publishers Society)

Laurent Petitgirard is a Commandeur des Arts et Lettres.

His son, Tristan Petitgirard, is a writer, stage director and actor.
Laurent Petitgirard is married with the actresses Sonia Petrovna.