Victorien Vanoosten
Since 2024, he has served as Music Director of the Opéra de Toulon and Principal Guest Conductor of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2019, he has also been the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Ensemble Symphonique de Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Recent career highlights include his 2024 debut with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and, in 2025, at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, conducting the ballet version of Grieg’s Peer Gynt. He also conducted a new production of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and a revival of the same production at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. He recently made his debut at the Oper Frankfurt as well.
Vanoosten has worked with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Opéra de Marseille, the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (where he served as assistant to Daniel Barenboim during the 2018–2019 season), the Opéra National de Paris, the Philharmonie de Paris (including performances with pianist Lang Lang), and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, among others.
His repertoire includes Médée by Cherubini, a reduced version of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Manon, Hamlet, Hérodiade, and Messager’s Madame Chrysanthème. He has also conducted ballet productions such as Le Sacre du Printemps and La Bayadère (the latter in 2018 with the Berlin State Ballet). He has collaborated with Emmanuel Pahud, flutist of the Berlin Philharmonic, as a soloist. His video production of Le Sacre du Printemps with the Swiss artist collective Supermafia (2021) became a viral sensation on YouTube, marking him as a notable figure in classical music’s digital landscape.
Born and raised in Lille, Vanoosten studied piano with Michel Béroff at the Paris Conservatory and conducting in Paris and Helsinki under Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alain Altinoglu, Leif Segerstam, David Zinman, Peter Eötvös, and Pierre Boulez. In 2016, he won the ADAMI Conducting Competition. He has been supported by scholarships from institutions such as Société Générale Mécénat Musical and Fondation Banque Populaire. In 2023, he was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.