Conductor
A conductor with an atypical career path, Christophe Talmont is back in Europe after a unique experience in Venezuela from 2012 to 2019, where he was Music Director of the Mérida State Symphony Orchestra and Founder of the Symphony Orchestra of the University of the Andes in Mérida. Renowned for his eclecticism and his passion for passing on his experience to the younger generation, he has presented new repertoires, including numerous French and European pieces from the operatic, symphonic and oratorio repertoires.
Conductor, choirmaster, clarinettist and teacher, Christophe Talmont is an all-round musician with a passion for singing and opera. He has worked with some of the greatest soloists on the international opera scene, including Anja Silja, Karita Mattila, Barbara Bonney, Thomas Hampson and Roberto Alagna.
He studied conducting with Dominique Rouits at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, where he was a prize-winner, and with Pierre Dervaux at the Fondation Yehudi Menuhin-Académie Internationale d’Orchestre de Saumur. He completed his training with Ferdinand Leitner at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and with Konrad Leitner in Vienna, Austria, as part of the Wiener Meisterkurse für Musik, where he was awarded the Wiener Meister Kurs diploma.
After serving as Assistant Conductor at the Orchestre National de Cannes et d’Avignon (1994-1997), he was Musical Director at the Opéra de Tours from 1998 to 2002, where he conducted numerous opera productions (Rossini’s L’Italienne à Alger, Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Lehar’s Die Lustige Witwe, Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, etc.) and symphonic concerts. In 2006, he was appointed Resident Conductor at the Orchestre National de Lyon and Musical Director of the ONL Academy.
In France, he has conducted the Orchestres Nationaux de Lyon, de Lorraine (symphonies and operas), d’Auvergne, des Pays de la Loire, de Montpellier, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Reims, de Rouen, and the Orchestres Régionaux de Picardie and de Bretagne (Opéra de Rennes).
In Germany, he conducted the Regensburg Theatre Orchestra in a production of J. Strauss’s Baron Tzigane, and in Poland, the Bialystok Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme dedicated to French music. In Paris, at the Théâtre du Châtelet, he conducted The London Philharmonia Orchestra as assistant to Christoph von Dohnanyi (Strauss’s Arabella).
In Venezuela, he has conducted all the major orchestras in Caracas, including the National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra, with which he maintains a regular relationship, and the main orchestras of the “El Sistema Nacional de Orquestas y Coros Infantiles y Juveniles de Venezuela”: the Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar de Venezuela (dir. Gustavo Dudamel), the Orquesta Juan José Landaeta and the Orquesta Barocca Simón Bolívar. On the South American continent, he has conducted the National Orchestra of Ecuador, the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and the Cuzco Symphony Orchestra, in Peru, as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations.
In December 2021, he enjoyed great success at the Opéra Grand Avignon with a production of Hervé’s “Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde”, and during 2022, he conducted several series of educational concerts with the Orchestre National d’Avignon.
For over a decade, Christophe Talmont has also been active as a teacher. He has been a guest teacher at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon in Michel Tranchant’s piano accompaniment class, a guest teacher at the School of Music of the Faculty of Arts of the University of the Andes in Mérida, Venezuela, where he has taught choral and orchestral conducting, and has given masterclasses in orchestral conducting as part of his activities with El Sistema, which he has continued since his return to France in 2020.