Biography

Since the start of his collaboration with Bruckner Days St. Florian in 2011, Rémy Ballot has established himself internationally through his interpretations of Bruckner’s symphonies raising the Altomonte Orchestra St. Florian to the level of the world’ s finest orchestras, as reviews of both the concerts and the CDs attest.

Considered by many to be the foremost Bruckner conductor of his generation, his live recordings of all Bruckner symphonies at the Abbey of St. Florian serve as reference recordings and have won numerous awards, including the American Bruckner Society’s ‘Recording of the Year’ Award, the Diapason d’or Découverte, the Supersonic Prize from the online magazine Pizzicato four times, and several ICMA (International Classical Music Awards) as well as Grammy nominations. The Austrian National Library chose Remy Ballot’s Bruckner cycle also as sound samples for their big anniversary exhibition at the National Library’s State Hall in 2024.

Working with the Klangkollektiv Wien, founded together with the clarinettist and Vienna Philharmonic member Norbert Täubl, he is breaking new ground in exploring the repertoire of the First Viennese School. The founding concert with works by Haydn, Webern and Schubert was enthusiastically received by the Vienna and German press, and led to highly acclaimed debuts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Prinzregententheater in Munich. This relationship has also resulted in numerous CDs, which have met with unanimous, in some cases hymn-like, response from critics.

Also, Rémy Ballot is in demand internationally as an orchestral pedagogue. He is working with orchestras in Spain, Albania, Croatia, Japan and Israel, where he was involved in the creation of the FYMO – Filasteen Young Musicians Orchestra – of the Barenboim-Said Foundation in Ramallah, with which he went on tour in Palestine and Jordan. In 2019, as well as in 2022, he conducted the National Orchestra of Cuba and the Lyceum Mozartiano de la Habana in Cuba in a series of concerts. He has also worked with the Orchestre National Philharmonique des Pays de la Loire, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Stage Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, the Orchestra of the Academy Ossiach and the Philharmonie Salzburg.

Rémy Ballot is the last student of Sergiu Celibidache, whom he first met at the age of 16. After Celibidache died, Rémy Ballot founded his own orchestra in Paris, which he then directed for five years. He studied violin with Gérard Poulet at the Paris Conservatoire in addition to receiving further musical inspiration from Ivry Gitlis.

Parallel to his work as a conductor, Rémy Ballot is continuing his activity as first violinist of the Ballot Quartet/Quintet. In 2020, his CD recording of both Bruckner’s String Quartet and String Quintet was hailed as a new reference recording in in-depth reviews in the Diapason and Crescendo magazines, and on the Austrian ORF radio station Ö1. This CD also won him the Supersonic Prize and earned him an ICMA nomination.

Starting with 2024, Remy Ballot is appointed ‘Conductor in Residence’ at the Richard Strauss Tage in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.