Biography
Since the beginning of his collaboration with the Bruckner Festival St. Florian in 2011, Rémy Ballot has made a name for himself internationally with his interpretations of the Bruckner symphonies.
Rémy Ballot celebrated a sensational success at his debut with the Stuttgart Philharmonic at the beginning of April 2024, standing in at short notice for chief conductor Dan Ettinger with the 5th Bruckner Symphony. Within 10 days, the orchestra invited him once again to take over the opening concerts of the renowned Bergamo-Brescia Piano Festival, in this case with a local premiere of Bruckner’s 4th symphony and Mozart’s K. 488 with Eva Gevorgyan as soloist. In mid-May, he was invited back for the second time, this time again to Stuttgart to conduct the Bruckner and Mozart program. According to the critics, it was ‚one of the best Bruckner conductors of our times, conducting one of the best concerts of recent seasons.‘
Considered by some to be the world’s best Bruckner conductor of his generation, the CD recordings of Bruckner’s 10 symphonies at the Bruckner Festival St. Florian serve as reference recordings and have won numerous awards, including the ‚Recording of the Year‘ award of the American Bruckner Society, Diapason d’or Découverte, four times the Pizzicato Magazine’s Supersonic Prize, and several Grammy and ICMA (International Classical Music Awards) nominations. The Austrian National Library selected Remy Ballot’s Bruckner cycle as reference recording and sound samples for its major anniversary exhibition in the State Hall of the National Library in 2024.
With Klangkollektiv Wien, which Remy Ballot founded together with clarinettist and member of the Vienna Philharmonic Norbert Täubl, he is breaking new ground in researching the repertoire of the First Viennese School. The inaugural concert with works by Haydn, Webern and Schubert was enthusiastically received by the Viennese and German press and led to acclaimed debuts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Prinzregententheater Munich. This collaboration has also resulted in numerous CDs, some of which have received unanimous critical acclaim.
Rémy Ballot is an internationally sought-after orchestra educator. He works with orchestras in Spain, Albania, Croatia, Japan and Israel, where he was involved in the founding of the FYMO – Filasteen Young Musicians Orchestra – of the Barenboim-Said Foundation in Ramallah, with which he toured Palestine and Jordan. In both 2019 and 2022, he conducted the National Orchestra of Cuba and the Lyceum Mozartiano de la Habana in Cuba in a series of concerts.
Rémy Ballot is the last pupil of Sergiu Celibidache, whom he met at the age of 16. After Celibidache’s death, Rémy Ballot founded his own orchestra in Paris, which he conducted for five years. He studied violin with Gérard Poulet at the Paris Conservatoire and received further musical inspiration from Ivry Gitlis. After moving to Vienna in 2005, he played regularly in the 1st violin section of the Vienna State Opera/Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for over 10 years.
Parallel to his work as a conductor, he continues his activities as first violinist of the Ballot Quartet/Quintet. In 2020, his CD recording of Bruckner’s String Quartet and String Quintet was celebrated as a new reference recording in extensive reviews in the magazines Diapason and Crescendo as well as on the Austrian ORF radio station Ö1. This CD also earned him the Supersonic Prize and an ICMA nomination.
In 2024, Rémy Ballot has been appointed “Conductor in Residence” at the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. To mark the 75th anniversary of Strauss’ death, live recordings of Heldenleben and Don Juan will be released on Gramola to start a new Richard Strauss Days Edition, in cooperation also with the Richard Strauss Institute.
Further CD releases this spring will include the continuation of the Schubert cycle (Symphonies 3 & 5) with the Klangkollektiv Wien, as well as the Trout Quintet and the Hummel Quintet among others together with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.