Emmanuel Villaume

Emmanuel Villaume (born 1964, Strasbourg, France) is a French orchestra conductor. He is currently music director of the Dallas Opera and chief conductor of the Prague Philharmonia.

Villaume began his musical education at the Strasbourg Conservatory. He continued his studies in Paris at Khâgne and the Sorbonne where he studied literature, philosophy and musicology. At age 21, he became stage manager and dramaturg at the Opéra National du Rhin, where he met Spiros Argiris, who was then the music director of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. Villaume subsequently studied conducting with Argiris, and later became an assistant conductor to Seiji Ozawa.

Villaume made his American conducting debut in 1990 with Le nozze di Figaro at the Spoleto Festival USA. He was named music director for opera and orchestra of the Spoleto Festival USA in October 2000, and held the post from 2001 to 2010. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2002 conducting the Montreal Symphony. He first conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in September 2004 in Madama Butterfly. Villaume first conducted at Dallas Opera in 1998. He made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2007.In April 2013, Villaume was named music director of the Dallas Opera, with immediate effect. In November 2015, the Dallas Opera announced that Villaume's contract as music director had been extended through June 2022.

Internationally, Villaume made his Orchestre de Paris debut in 2000 as well as his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden conducting Les Contes d'Hoffmann in October 2000. In January 2007 he made his conducting debut at La Fenice in Venice with Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto. He became chief conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, and held the post through 2013. He became chief conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic in 2009, and is currently contracted to the orchestra through 2016. In October 2014, the Prague Philharmonia announced the appointment of Villaume as its fourth chief conductor, effective with the 2015-2016 season, with an initial contract of 3 years.

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