Conductor
Appointed musical director of the Opéra Orchestre Normandie Rouen from the season 2026-2027, Pierre Dumoussaud was revealed on the opera scene when he won the International Competition for Opera Conductors in 2017, Pierre Dumoussaud was awarded the first Victoire de la Musique “Revelation Conductor” when the category was created in 2022. The same year, the French Minister of Culture awarded him the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He is pursuing a fine career in the pits of Europe’s opera houses, his enthusiasm and meticulousness having already earned him many successes in France (Hamlet and Manon at the Opera national de Paris, Madama Butterfly in Rouen, Iphigénie en Tauride in Montpellier…) and beyond: Mignon at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Hamlet at the Komische Oper, La Belle Hélène at the Opéra de Lausanne, Pelléas in Liège, Faust and Pénélope in Athens…
His discography is a testament to his predilection for the French music of the 19th and 20th centuries: Pelléas & Mélisande for Alpha Classics at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, the first complete version of Offenbach’s Le Voyage dans la Lune –which won the 2022 International Opera Award for best recording – and Messager’s Les P’tites Michu for the Palazzetto Bru Zane and with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire. Another album devoted to the composer Olivier Greif (1950-2000) was released with label B Records and received a “Diapason d’or” and a “Choc” from Classica.
Committed to the artists he accompanies, he regularly works on their recordings: Cyrille Dubois with the Brussels Philharmonic, Alexandre Tharaud with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Jean-François Borras with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Eva Zaïcik with the Orchestre National de Lille. Pierre Dumoussaud’s conducting, described by Christian Merlin (Le Figaro) as “clear and modern but also eloquent and lively”, is also much appreciated by the dancers: he conducts Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet and Giselle in Bordeaux, and at the Opéra National de Paris in a Tribute to Roland Petit and L’Histoire de Manon.
A bassoonist with a passion for the symphonic repertoire, Pierre Dumoussaud trained as a conductor at the Paris Conservatoire until 2014, when he was awarded the first prize in the ADAMI “Talents conductors” competition. The following year, he jumped in for Alain Lombard, conducting the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine. He has kept a privileged relationship with this orchestra, of which he was assistant conductor (between 2014 and 2016), officiating thereafter at the head of several opera productions (Don Carlo, Semiramide, The Turn of the Screw, La Voix Humaine, Werther for Benjamin Bernheim’s role debut). Abroad, he conducts the Karajan Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne… In France, Pierre Dumoussaud conducts the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg the, the Orchestre National d’Auvergne, , the Orchestre National de Metz, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, …
During the 2025-2026 season, Pierre Dumoussaud makes his debuts at the Zurich Opera with Le Nozze di Figaro and returns to the Berlin Staatsoper for Les Contes d’Hoffmann, which production premieres at the Opéra-Comique earlier in the season, still under his baton. After forging a strong bond with Japanese audiences at the helm of several orchestras (Tokyo City Philharmonic, Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa), he embarks on a new tour with the City of Kyoto Symphony and the Gunma Symphony Orchestra.
Photo credit: Edouard Brane