©Photo: Simon Pauly

Lionel Bringuier

Conductor

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Music Director Designate: Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (from 2025/26)
Principal Conductor: Nice Philharmonic Orchestra

Lionel Bringuier has already travelled extensively across the globe at the invitation of symphonies, chamber orchestras, and opera houses. Bringuier has been appointed Music Director of Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, starting from the 2025/26 season. He has ambitious plans for the orchestra, including expanding its performance repertoire, strengthening its relationship with audiences, and enhancing its national and international reputation. Notably, his work with the orchestra will include a performance in Liege in February 2024 and at the Kissinger Sommer International Musik Festival in June 2024. Alongside this new role he continues his role as Principal Conductor of Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice in his hometown. This unique appointment allows him to curate a series of special programmes, which he will also conduct, and to invite several of his closest musical partners. This season, these include Gautier Capuçon, Lukáš Vondráček and Nicolas Bringuier. Additionally, the season will feature a production of Carmen at the Opéra Nice Côte d’Azur, directed by Daniel Benoin.

For the 2024/25 season, Bringuier’s engagements include performances with Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Sydney and Queensland symphonies, China National Symphony Orchestra, and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin during Beethovenfest Bonn. He will also embark on a tour with the Orchestre National de Metz and Victor Julien-Lafferière. Additionally, he will return to conduct Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Enescu Philharmonic. Highlights of previous seasons include return to Hollywood Bowl with Los Angeles Philharmonic and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, performances with San Diego Symphony Orchestra and Colburn School, as well as projects with Dresden Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, NOSPR Katowice and Luzerner Sinfonieorchester.

Lionel_Bringuier_PRINT-22 — ©Simon Pauly

Very well-known across Europe and having previously served as Music Director of Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (2014/18), Bringuier has also held posts at Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in Valladolid, Orchestre de Bretagne and Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Bringuier’s relationship with Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2007 – 2013 started with the position of first assistant conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the age of 21 and developed into the role of associate conductor and later resident conductor – as the first person to hold this title in the orchestra’s history.

As part of an extensive discography, Bringuier has collaborated with Yuja Wang for a Ravel Piano Concerto recording for Deutsche Grammophon as part of a complete cycle of the composer’s works. Other recordings include Chopin with Nelson Freire (DG) and Saint-Saëns with Renaud Capuçon and Gautier Capuçon (Erato) who are also regular partners. He works closely with some of the finest instrumentalists in the world, including Lisa Batiashvili, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Leif Ove Andsnes and Janine Jansen.

Bringuier comes from a family of musicians and studied cello and conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris, winning the prestigious International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors only a year after graduating. He cares passionately about education, outreach, and developing the careers of emerging conductors and soloists. In September 2020 he served on the jury of La Maestra, the first international conducting competition for women, and continues to work with local schools in his hometown of Nice to introduce children to classical music and orchestral experiences.

A film produced by Nilento Studio, Produced for Konserthuset Play © Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Lionel Bringuier - Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor © medici.tv

Lionel Bringuier - Dutilleux: Symphony No.1 © France Musique

Lionel Bringuier - Stravinsky: Firebird Suite, Infernal Dance © Andrea Lucchi

Lionel Bringuier - Ravel: Piano Concerto in G with Yuja Wang © LionelBringuierTV

Lionel Bringuier - Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra triumphs on tour - musica © euronews

Lionel Bringuier - Hélène Grimaud: "the hope is to convey enough emotion to alter time" © euronews

Lionel Bringuier - Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bald Mountain © medici.tv

Lionel Bringuier - Bartók: Concerto (Tonhalle-Zürich) © hotdogfalo

Lionel Bringuier - Overture to 'Le nozze di Figaro', Camerata Salzburg © LionelBringuierTV

“Here, the discourse is constantly relaunched and reinvented: from the first to the last second, we find ourselves captivated or even bewitched by the intensity of Lionel Bringuier’s interpretation… At the end of the concert, after an ovation of nearly ten minutes, one can only hope for a prompt return of Lionel Bringuier in the Belgian capital with this excellent national orchestra which he knew how to galvanize and inspire.”

(Bachtrack, November 2021)

“The Tchaikovsky was balanced at the other end of the program by Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2, in an expansive reading by Bringuier. The conductor unspooled Rachmaninov’s long-breathed melodies with an eye for the big picture, carefully building the first movement to the storm of swirling strings and thundering brass and percussion at its climax. The Scherzo, infused with the darkness of the Dies irae chant, sparkled with horns and racing strings, while the slow movement was achingly romantic, Bringuier once again deftly pacing the climaxes, before dispatching a celebratory finale.”

(Limelight Magazine, 2019)

“Lionel Bringuier was a sensitive partner during the concerto and led an invigorated reading by the SSO of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E minor, with woodwind and horn solos of richly-coloured clarity.”

(The Sydney Morning Herald, 2019)

“With Ravel’s “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales,” Bringuier further flashed his Ravel credentials. The conductor took some of the waltzes at daringly slow tempos that dripped with sensuality while exulting in the swaying swing of the opening waltz. Bringuier had the help of the L.A. Phil’s jazz-minded soloists pouring on the bluesy slurring in Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.” Three saxophonists were forwardly balanced in the central homesick blues section that gave it a Paul Whiteman-like period sound. Elsewhere, Bringuier made infectiously jaunty work of Gershwin’s fast walks through the French capital.”

(Los Angeles Times, 2019)

“Bringuier took the stage briskly, without fuss, and wearing an immaculately tailored suit and big smile. He plunged immediately into Albert Roussel’s ballet-pantomime “The Spider’s Feast,” drawing from the orchestra a huge palette of dewy, subdued colors, delicately shaded. Bringuier’s gestures on the podium are big but never excessive. He communicated changes of tempo and meter precisely, and the musicians seemed to follow him effortlessly, in the subtlety of his musical imagery and the absolute mastery of his craft, Bringuier’s conducting brings to mind the great Pierre Monteux.”

(The Washington Post, 2019)

“Bringuier, who as a Ravel specialist has repeatedly demonstrated a special flair for shaping tonal color, also knows how to conjure up with Rimsky-Korsakov all the richness of sonority from the dazzling score.”

(Thomas Schacher / Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2018)

“Bringuier does not seek out the message, the great gesture or the originality: he builds, he guides, he directs while knowing how to let the musicians express themselves. He keeps the building upright by attaching itself to the foundations — splendid articulation, powerful and lively string basses — and the colors — winds are alert and free to sing while taking risks, always assumed.”

(Alain Lompech / Bachtrack, 2018)

“If there was a link between the concerto, Dutilleux’s Métaboles and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé Suite No 2, it was in the transparency of the sound achieved under Bringuier, whose debut this was with the LSO. The ecstasies described by Brahms, Dutilleux and Ravel are distinct, and were beautifully individuated by the French conductor.”

(The Times, 2018)