Arnaud Arbet
Conductor and Composer
Founder of Le Seuil Musical
Arnaud Arbet is a highly regarded conductor in Europe and beyond, particularly sought after in the field of modern and contemporary music as well as opera.
He is regularly invited by prestigious institutions such as the Madrid Symphony Orchestra (with which he has conducted Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht and a Mozart programme), the Robert Schumann Philharmonic in Chemnitz (Der Mond by Carl Orff, Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, among others), as well as the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne. With the latter, he conducted several major productions: Rihm’s Die Eroberung von Mexico, Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten as co-conductor, Kagel’s Mare Nostrum, Salieri’s La Scuola de’ Gelosi, Bizet’s Carmen.
Further engagements recently took him to the Ensemble Giorgio Bernasconi in Milan (including a performance at La Scala), the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra in Umeå (Les Contes d’Hoffmann, broadcasted on Swedish national television), and at the George Enescu International Festival in Bucharest, where he conducted the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre and Kurtág’s Fin de partie, as well as in a concert dedicated to French symphonic music.
As the founder of the ensemble Le Seuil Musical, Arnaud Arbet explores the artistic aesthetics of the first half of the 20th century and the many “thresholds” that shape this period. The ensemble performs in France and abroad.
At the same time, Arnaud Arbet is developing a career as a composer. His works are performed by the Seta Ensemble, THReNSeMBLe, Le Seuil Musical, the George Enescu Philharmonic Choir, as well as by artists such as Marie-Adeline Henry, Alexandra Untiedt, Vincent Le Texier and pianist Kyoko Nojima.
Arnaud Arbet began his career as a vocal coach at the Atelier Lyrique of the Paris National Opera before becoming assistant conductor at Teatro Real in Madrid. He was subsequently invited to many opera houses and festivals, working alongside Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Sylvain Cambreling, Ingo Metzmacher, Seiji Ozawa, Alejo Pérez and Sir Simon Rattle. He was also György Kurtág’s assistant for five years, helping him to complete Fin de partie, which premiered at La Scala in Milan in 2018.
The fact that Arnaud Arbet has been entrusted with the premiere of Fin de Partie in Romania in 2025 is a sign of recognition for the decisive role he played in the creation of Kurtág's masterpiece.
