Laurent Campellone

Biography

After studying the violin, tuba, percussion, and voice, Laurent Campellone, along with earning a Degree in philosophy, studied conducting at the Frederic Chopin Conservatory of Paris. At the age of 23, he became the assistant to the Musical Director of the Toulon Opera.

In 2000, he completed his education with Christoph Eschenbach. In 2001, at 29, Laurent Campellone was the unanimous Winner of the 8th International Competition for young conductors of the European community, in Spoleto, Italy, in association with the Accademia of Santa-Cecilia and the Rome Opera.

Since then, Laurent Campellone has been invited to conduct around 250 symphonic pieces and around 50 different lyric scores like La Gioconda, Carmen, Turandot (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Les Troyens (Manaus Opera) , Les Pêcheurs de perles and Faust (Madison Opera), Lakmé, Don Quichotte, Traviata, Turandot, Damnation de Faust (National Opera of Bulgaria), L’Enfance du Christ, La Périchole (Marseille Opera), Don Pasquale, Lucia di Lamermoor, Ceopatra by Cimarosa (Spoleto), L’Etoile, La grande Dûchesse de Geroldstein, Les Mamelles de Tiresias and La Voix humaine (Toulon Opera), Les Contes d’Hoffmann and L’Etoile (Angers-Nantes Opera), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Bordeaux national Opera), La Cenerentola (Bogota Opera), Werther (Messina Opera)...

In 2004, Laurent Campellone was appointed Musical Director of both Saint-Etienne Opera and Symphonic Orchestra, where he rediscovered the French Lyric Repertoire of the 19th century, conducting Massenet’s (Sapho, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, Ariane, Le Mage...), Gounod’s (La Reine de Saba, Polyeucte), Lalo’s (Le Roi d’Ys) rare pieces. His passion for rare pieces of the French Romantic Repertoire does not exclude his readings of Turandot, Rigoletto, Norma, Samson et Dalila, Tosca, La Bohème, Die Walküre, Der fliegende Höllander, Roméo et Juliette, Carmen, L’Elisir d’amore, Faust...

Laurent Campellone is regularly invited by internationally famous intitutions like the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Brazil National Orchestra, the New Russia State Orchestra, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of the Capitole in Toulouse, the Philharmonie in Sofia, the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire, the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Nancy, the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra... as well as by prestigious French Festivals like the La Chaise-Dieu Festival, the Berlioz Festival in La Côte Saint-André...

Since september 2009, Laurent Campellone is also Principal Guest Conductor of the National Opera in Sofia.