JEAN-CHRISTOPHE SPINOSI

“The conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi, showing sensitivity to the intricacies and sparkle of Rossini’s score, led the excellent Ensemble Matheus in a beguiling performance.”
– New York Times

“Voluble, expressive, even magical, Jean-Christophe Spinosi. . . has proven once again that he is a Vivaldian of the highest order!”
– Le Monde

A musician with an approach which is simultaneously modern and baroque, the profoundly humanistic conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi has pursued a brilliant international career.

At the head of his Ensemble Matheus, he has performed regularly at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Theater an der Wien, Salzburg Festival, the Whitsun Festival, Liceu in Barcelona, and the Staatsoper in Berlin as well as created numerous atypical and unique projects which mix baroque repertoire with contemporary music and street artists.

The symphonic and opera worlds rapidly opened their doors to him, recognizing his audacious interpretations. He is a regular guest of the greatest international orchestras such the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Radio Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Deutsche Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Spanish National Orchestra, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, HR-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Moscow National Chamber Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic of Tokyo, and the Osaka Philharmonic, with whom he performs in prestigious halls. He has lead orchestras at their homes and on tours including at the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Palais Garnier in Paris, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow.

Spinosi has built an impressive discography with the Ensemble Matheus on the Naïve label, including four previously unrecorded operas by Vivaldi (La verità in cimento, Orlando Furioso, La Griselda and La fida ninfa), as well as Vivaldi´s Stabat Mater and Nisi Dominus with Philippe Jaroussky and Marie-Nicole Lemieux. He has recorded an album entitled Heroes with Jaroussky for EMI-Virgin Classics, an album titled Visions with Cecilia Bartoli for Decca Classics, and twice for Deutsche Grammophon including the 2013 release featuring Ensemble Matheus and mezzo soprano Malena Ernman and the world premiere recording of Guillaume Conneson’s Lucifer with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. His recording catalogue has been tremendously popular, and has received many awards both in France and abroad.

Spinosi’s artistic collaborators include soloists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Philippe Jaroussky, Janine Jansen, Maxim Vengerov, Maria João Pires, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Natalie Dessay, and Jakub Józef Orliński.

Jean-Christophe Spinosi is represented worldwide by Tanja Dorn at Dorn Music.

This approved biography is not to be altered or shortened without the management’s permission. Please replace older versions.

December 2021

Ensemble Matheus has been working for 30 years to renew the interpretation of baroque and classical repertoire on period instruments.  Drawing on modern musicology, it has brought to light numerous works of Vivaldi with whom the ensemble’s name is indelibly associated.  Equally at home on baroque and modern instruments, Ensemble Matheus also regularly performs works from the Romantic and modern periods. With the same rigour and passion they also explore the worlds of traditional, popular and urban music, encouraging the musicians to mix genres and periods, drawing on past centuries but open to modern-day society. The “baroque attitude” that Ensemble Matheus brings to a whole repertoire opens the way to new interpretations, from the faithful restitution of manuscripts to experimental research.  As artists of the 21st century, they make historical restitution on period instruments an ever-renewable act of creation.

Based in Brittany, where it frequently performs in the major regional opera houses, the ensemble also appears regularly at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre du Châtelet, Royal Opera of Versailles, Vienna Opera, Theater an der Wien, Salzburg Festival, Liceu of Barcelona, Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, Royal Opera of Stockholm, and the opera houses of Hamburg, Zurich, Madrid, London, Berlin, Moscow.  It is equally committed to bringing music to smaller and underprivileged communities across France and abroad.

Over the coming seasons, the Ensemble is embarking on a major project called L’Olimpiade, conceived by Jean-Christophe Spinosi and linked to Vivaldi’s opera of the same name… Created in 2019 and running up until the Paris Games in 2024 the Ensemble will present the work in various forms, from a series of short films, to a travelling opera, to a major opera production merging sport and music in a new artistic gesture.

The approved biography is not to be altered or shortened without the orchestra’s permission. Please replace older versions. 

Website: https://www.ensemble-matheus.fr/