Founding Conductor of Orchestre National de Lille
After more than forty years at the head of the Orchestre National de Lille that he created in 1976, Jean-Claude Casadesus, the founding conductor, continues to appear regularly with the orchestra while pursuing his international career.
Under his baton, the orchestra has toured around the world (32 countries on 4 continents – USA, Latin America, Africa, Russia, China and Kazakhstan) and has followed an exemplary policy of promoting and raising awareness of children and audiences who do not have access to music. He is also artistic director of the ‘Lille Piano (s) Festival’.
His discography of more than thirty CDs with Orchestre National de Lille was unanimously hailed by the public and critics. His latest recordings of “A Hero’s life” by Richard Strauss and Mahler’s Second Symphony received an enthusiastic welcome. They are followed by Mahler’s « Song of the Earth » and a CD dedicated to Henri Dutilleux, including ‘Les Métaboles’ and Symphony n°1.
An ardent defender of contemporary music, having studied orchestral conducting with Pierre Boulez, he initiated residencies for composers and since 2001 has chaired the famous association ‘Musique Nouvelle en Liberté’.
Before participating, alongside his great master Pierre Dervaux, in the creation of ‘Orchestre des Pays de la Loire’ of which he was assistant director, he was musical director of the ‘Châtelet’ in Paris at the beginning of his career before being appointed principal conductor at the ‘Opéra de Paris’ and the ‘Opéra-Comique’. His interest in opera led him to direct major productions at the ‘Festival d’Aix-en-Provence’, in Orange, Paris, Trieste, Monte Carlo, the ‘Opera Flandres’ and, of course, the ‘Opera de Lille’ (with a very memorable CARMEN staged by J.F. Sivadier) …
As a guest conductor, he conducts in France the Orchestre National de France and Orchestre de Paris as well as the orchestras of Bordeaux, Montpellier, Marseille, Monte Carlo, … Internationally he performs at major concert halls in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, Philadelphia, Riga, Lisbon, Montreal, Baltimore, Leipzig, Berlin, Tenerife, Gran Canaria…
He is deeply committed to conveying knowledge and experience to future generations. He conducted for three years the ‘Orchestre Français des Jeunes’ (French Youth Orchestra) and is regularly invited by the ‘Orchestre des Jeunes du CNSM’ of Paris for very popular concerts at the Philharmonie. In 2016, he was appointed as the director of the ‘Ecole Supérieure Musique et Danse des Hauts de France’ (School of music and dance of the Hauts de France).
Jean-Claude Casadesus has also written two books, “Le plus court chemin d’un cœur à un autre” (the shortest path from one heart to another) published by Stock and “La partition d’une vie” (the score of a life) published by ‘Éditions Écriture’.
In recognition of his career, Jean-Claude Casadesus has received numerous distinctions : ‘Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur’, ‘Grand Officier de l’Ordre national du Mérite’, ‘Commandeur des Arts et Lettres’, ‘Commandeur de l’Ordre d’Orange-Nassau’, ‘Officier de l’Ordre de Léopold de Belgique’, ‘Chevalier des Palmes académiques’. In 2004, the ‘Victoires de la Musique’ awarded him a ‘Victoire d’honneur’. In 2021, his name entered the Frenc dictionary. Since March 2023, the Auditorium du Nouveau Siècle in Lille has borne his name and has been renamed the “Auditorium Jean-Claude Casadesus”, where he notably conducts the Lille Piano(s) Festival, which he founded in 2004.
