BIOGRAPHY
Musical and artistic director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Gironde for 15 years, Lionel Gaudin-Villard is currently resuming an activity as an independent conductor.
Fifteen years during which he devoted himself entirely to sharing the repertoire for orchestra with young audiences in Gironde.
In total : nearly 700,000 spectators, 1,200 concerts conducted, 115 different programs offered including 70 premieres. From symphony to ballet, from opera to contemporary creations, his experience and know-how are well established.
By renewing the repertoire for young audiences, Lionel Gaudin-Villard has enabled many artists (instrumentalists, composers, opera singers, actors, dancers) to emerge and live fully from their art while guaranteeing them public recognition.
Now, rich with all these successes, Lionel Gaudin-Villard resumes an activity as an independent artist while supporting the creation of the association arezzo musiques and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gironde whose Marco Codjia, author, is the new artistic director.
Lionel Gaudin-Villard studied music at the conservatories of Bayonne and Bordeaux.
In 1998, he obtained unanimously from the jury the orchestra conducting diploma, class of Robert Delcroix. He also follows the advice of Stéphane Cardon, the choir direction courses of Eliane Lavail and Michel Tranchant in parallel with lessons in harmony and composition, clarinet, piano and lyrical singing.
Then began a prolific career as an assistant and guest conductor in France and Europe, mainly in Austria and Russia. He assisted the Viennese conductor Hans Graf during the 1998/99 season of the Orchester National Bordeaux Aquitaine.
He collaborates with Alexander Kantorov, conducts the Orchester Klassika de St Persterbourg, assists John Nelson then at the head of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris (now Chamber Orchestra of Paris).
After leading a fine career for several years in Europe, particularly in Norway, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Germany, he decided to refocus his activity on Bordeaux. He created his own orchestra, the Orchester Symphonique de Gironde in 2008.
Since 2023, Lionel Gaudin-Villard has returned to the activity of guest conductor.
Great recognition for Lionel Gaudin-Villard whose educational activities have been unanimous among the public for more than 15 years. In 2008, he creates the Mini Concerts that to awaken the school audience to the world of orchestra and classical music.
The Mini Concerts were honoured with the Audiens Generation Foundation Award and the Bordeaux City Award in 2018.
With these unique concerts, attended by nearly 35,000 young people each year, Lionel Gaudin-Villard develops the Gironde Symphony Orchestra and diversifies its repertoire. He commissioned numerous works and created a real springboard for young artists. In 2012, he created Les Fables de La Fontaine then Jack et le haricot magique in 2014 and Hansel et Gretel in 2016 by Sacha Chaban, Un air de Raiponce in 2017 by Sally Galet, Ulysse et les sirènes in 2018 by Jérémie Voin. He collaborated with the Jeune Ballet d'Aquitaine and created La Reine des fées in 2016 and La Boîte à joujoux in 2017. He also commissioned and created the ballets Kuolema in 2019 and Le Chaperon Rouge in 2020 with Compagnie Sohrab Chitan.
Between 1996 and 2020, he collaborated with many opera companies including Figaro-ci, Figaro-la and Maryse Ghibaudo for which he directed several comic operas including Valse de Vienne of Viarney, La Poule Noire of Manuel Rosenthal, Il Campanello di notte of Donizetti and Orpheus in the underworld of Offenbach. He conducts for the Compagnie Les Chants de Garonne and Emmanuel Gardeil, Mozart's operas Les Noces de Figaro in 2017, Don Giovanni in 2018 and Le Barbier de Séville of Rossini in 2019. In 2017, with La Fabrique Opéra de Bordeaux, he conducts Carmen of Bizet in front of nearly 10,000 spectators between Bordeaux and Angouleme.
Equally passionate about choral singing, Lionel Gaudin-Villard conducts a vast sacred repertoire from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries with numerous Bordeaux choirs: Mozart’s Requiem (Sussmayer and Beyer versions), Cherubini, Fauré and Verdi, "Ein Deutsches Requiem" of Brahms, the Te Deum and Stabat Mater of Dvorak. We also mention the a cappella repertoire and/or with accompaniment of Fauré, Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Messiaen, Duruflé, Poulenc, Bartok, Barber, Bernstein, Copland, Whitacre, Pärt, Lauridsen...