Pierre Vallet September 19, 2019 | 2:30PM - 4:30PM Kresge Theatre, College of Fine Arts Praised for the elegance and intensity of his interpretations, French conductor Pierre Vallet is a frequent guest with the worl d’s great opera companies. The New York Times selected hi s conducting of Persée et Andromède by Ibert at the Manh attan School of Music as one of the ten best classical performances in New York in 2016. He has conducted Madama Butte rfly and Faust at the Metropolitan Opera; Tannhäuser and Carmen at L’Opéra National de P aris; Carmen and Samson et Dalila at The Dallas Opera; Orfeo and Euridice (Glück) at Opera Theater St. Louis; Don Carlo at the Lithuanian National Opera Theater, Vi lnius; La Juive at the Göteborg Opera, Sweden; Faust at the Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona. Elsewhere he has conducted Eugene Onegin, Tannhäuser, and Otello at Tokyo Opera Nomori; L ~Enf ant et les Sortilèges at the Manhattan School of Music in New York; Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Hänsel and Gret el at the Saito Kinen Festival; Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Ca stle in Shanghai and Beijing; Madama Butterfly at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan; and Massenet’s Manon at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Upcoming engagements include Tales of Hoffmann at the Bastille Opera. Maestro Vallet~s symphon ic work includes regular appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London; the Camerata Royal in Bucharest; the Filarmonica Brasov in R omania, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra; the National Philharm onic of Chisinau, Moldova; the Spoleto Festival USA; the St. Hughes Con cert Series in Miami and the Greenwich Village Orchestra in New York. To celebrate Beethoven~s year during the season 19-20, he w ill lead the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the complete piano concertos by Beethoven performed by Elizabeth Sombart and the last ten symphonies by Mozart, at Cadogan Hall, London. He has recorded two CDs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Elizabeth Sombart: the Chopi n piano concertos, and a collection of Favorite Adagios of piano concerto s released in the spring of 2017.       For Albany Records, he recorded the opera Cendrillon by Nicolò Isouard that he helped restore to its origi nal 1810 version. In July he will record the complete piano concertos by B eethoven with Elizabeth Sombart and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Vallet is a long-serving member of the Metropolitan Opera, first as a pianist and coach and later joining the roster of staff conduct ors. He has enjoyed a long-term musical partnership with Seiji Ozawa, working closely together on some fifty operatic productions and oratorios throughout Japan, the US and Europe, encompassing a large and diverse repertoire. As chorus master, he has prepare d the New York Choral Artists in Joan at the Stake by Ho negger for the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert. He prepare d the SKF Matsumoto Choir and the Ritsuyukai Choir for Britten’s War Requiem (Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra at Carnegie Hall), t he Tokyo Opera Singers for L a Damnation de Faust , and B eethoven~s 9th Symphony conducted by Seiji Ozawa at the Saito Kinen Festival. He has also appeared as conductor and lecturer at th e choral festival Tokyo Cantat. As a pianist, he has per formed in duo recitals in both the US and Europe with some of the world’s most renowned singers, including Natalie Dessay, Maria Guleghina, Ying Huang, Denyce Graves (at the White House) and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. More r ecently he appeared at the Vienna State Opera with Roberto Alagna, and wi th Joyce di Donato in a live stream concert for the release of her new alb um Stella Di Napoli. A committed educator, Pierre Vallet is a sought-after lecturer and guest teacher at the world’s premier train ing institutions. In addition to his work with the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, he has been a regular visi tor to the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Wolf Trap Opera Company, the Houston Grand Opera Studio and Opera Hong Kong. Vallet studied conduct ing and the theory of phenomenology in music with Sergiù Celibidache, pia no with Louis Hilbrand in Geneva and Peter Feuchtwanger in London. He is a graduate of L’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and the Conservatoire Nat ional Supérieur de Musique de Paris.