Sylvain Cambreling

Who is Sylvain Cambreling?

Sylvain Cambreling is a French conductor. Trained as a trombone player, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire. He joined l'Orchestre Symphonique de Lyon as a trombonist in 1971. In 1974, he took second prize in the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. His conducting debut was with the OSL in 1975, leading Robert Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust. At the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he began to guest-conduct the Ensemble Intercontemporain regularly from 1976.

Cambreling was the music director of the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels from 1981-1991, during Gerard Mortier's tenure. He served as artistic director and general music director of the Frankfurt Opera from 1993-1997. During his Frankfurt tenure, he encountered controversy over proposed budget cuts from the city of Frankfurt and the director for opera and ballet, Martin Steinhoff. From 1997-2004, he served as principal guest conductor of Klangforum Wien, with whom he premiered Luciano Berio's final opera, Cronaca del luogo. He was a frequent conductor at the Opéra National de Paris during Mortier's tenure there, from 2004-2009, holding the title of "principal conductor" for the first season of that duration, a title shared with six other conductors.