Marc Soustrot

Marc Soustrot (born 15 April 1949) is a French classical conductor. He was the music director of the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire from 1976 to 1994, and from 1995 to 2003 GMD of the Beethoven Orchester Bonn which plays in both opera and concert. He has worked at major opera houses in Europe and made several recordings, such as Leonore, Beethoven's first version of Fidelio, the piano concertos and symphonies by Camille Saint-Saëns, Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, and Penderecki's St Luke Passion.

Career Born in Lyon, Soustrot first studied there at the Conservatoire de Lyon from 1962 to 1969. He continued his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris, in particular in piano, trombone, chamber music, and conducting (under Rosenthal and Tzipine).

From 1995 to 2003, he was GMD of the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, where he conducted the first performance of Beethoven's Leonore, the first version of the later Fidelio, since 1806. He led the Brabants Orkest Eindhoven from 1996 to 2006. From the 2011/12 season, he has been the Malmö Symphony Orchestra's Chief Conductor, and from the 2015/16 season also conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. For his conducting of Berg's Wozzeck, he was described as "an impressive conductor, avoiding anything artificial but aiming for what Berg had in mind: a sensual effect of magnificent sounds."

He conducted in 2017 at the Oper Frankfurt a double bill of Debussy's cantata La Damoiselle élue and Honegger's dramatic oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, again staged by Ollé, and co-produced with the Teatro Real Madrid. Saint-Saëns piano concertos (with Romain Descharmes), cello concertos n° 1 & 2 (with Gabriel Schwabe) and symphonies with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Bizet's Symphony in C, Carmen and L'Arlésienne Suites, Debussy's La Mer and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé (Suite No. 2) with the Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de Loire.

Larger works recorded in Bonn include Beethoven's Leonore (1806 version) with the Kölner Rundfunkchor and Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn, He recorded Penderecki's St Luke Passion with the WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, the NDR Chor and the Mainzer Domchor.

In 2009 Soustrot recorded Philippe Gaubert's Le Chevalier et la Damoiselle and other works with the Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg.