Music Director of the Seattle Symphony since 2011, French conductor LUDOVIC MORLOT has energized the orchestra with his charisma and innovative programming, including several community projects and collaborations with local musicians.  The number of subscribers for the orchestra’s different series has also significantly increased since the start of his tenure.  During the 2012-13 season he conducts a wide range of programs with the orchestra including Mahler Symphony No. 4, Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Messiaen Turangalîla Symphony, a gala concert with Joshua Bell and performances of Britten’s War Requiem.  The season culminates in the world premiere of Become Ocean by John Luther Adams.

2012-13 also marks Morlot’s first full season as Chief Conductor of La Monnaie in Brussels, one of Europe’s most prominent opera houses.  At La Monnaie he conducts his first performances of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte and leads a concert featuring Alfred Bruneau’s Requiem and works by Bach and Berg.  In 2010-11 he conducted Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias  at the Opéra National de Lyon and the Opéra Comique in Paris. He has recently collaborated with many distinguished singers including Renée Fleming, Barbara Hannigan, Dawn Upshaw, Jessye Norman and Thomas Hampson.

Additional highlights of the 2012-13  season include Ludovic’s debut at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan and return engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. Last season he continued his longstanding collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducting them in two subscription weeks and on a California tour that included two concerts in San Francisco and one in Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Ludovic also appears regularly with the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony, and has recently conducted the Cleveland Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others.

In Europe during the 2011-12  season, Ludovic made debuts with the Orchestre National de France,  the Dresdener Philharmonie, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.  These engagements followed successful debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Anne Sophie-Mutter, whom he conducted at Royal Festival Hall and on tour in Germany, and the Czech Philharmonic.  Other notable engagements include the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Tonhalle, Orchestra (Zürich), the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic, among others.  

Ludovic Morlot has maintained a close working relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2001, first as the Seiji Ozawa Fellowship Conductor at the Tanglewood Music Center, subsequently as assistant conductor for the orchestra and their Music Director James Levine (2004-07) and then as a guest conductor both in Boston and at the Tanglewood Music Festival.  Ludovic served as conductor in residence with the Orchestre National de Lyon under David Robertson (2002-04).

Trained as a violinist, Ludovic studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London and then at the Royal College of Music as a recipient of the Norman del Mar Conducting Fellowship.  Ludovic was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2007 in recognition of his significant contribution to music.