Adrian McDonnell, conductor

Classics II: July 19th and 20th

Laureate Conductor of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation of France, Adrian McDonnell is currently the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Orchestre de la Cité internationale in Paris, France. Over the past 20 years he has developed a vast repertory of standard symphonic works as well as contemporary music including many world premieres.

He began his musical studies with the violin and piano, and studied conducting with Peter Paul Fuchs. At age 19, he was chosen as apprentice conductor for the North Carolina Arts Council’s Artists Training Program, where he studied with Sheldon Morgenstern.

Following studies at the New England Conservatory with Richard Pittman, McDonnell became the assistant Conductor of the Greensboro Opera Company and Greensboro Symphony orchestra at the age of 22.

After several years’ tenure with the Greensboro Symphony and Opera, he moved to Paris, where, with the aide of a grant from the Nadia Boulanger Foundation, he studied conducting with Pierre Dervaux, harmony, counterpoint and fugue with Michel Merlet at the Paris Conservatory, and was awarded the Diplôme Supérieur in composition from the famed Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.

In 1990 he became the Music Director and Conductor of the new Orchestre de la Cité internationale. The musical quality and spectacular growth of this new ensemble under McDonnell’s direction has since won it permanent funding from the French Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of National Education, the SACEM (the French equivalent of ASCAP), several private foundations, as well as the City of Paris’ Department of Cultural Affaires, who in turn, asked Maestro McDonnell to reorganize and conduct their Orchestre Inter-Conservatoire de Paris for several seasons.

Called in July 1994 to replace Krzysztof Penderecki for a series of concerts at the Eastern Music Festival, Adrian McDonnell was then named permanent staff conductor of the Eastern Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 1999.

He has collaborated with numerous well-known soloists : Anne Queffelec, Laurent Korcia, Gary Hoffman, Jean-Pierre Arnaud, Gilles Henry, Reiko Nakaoki, François-Henri Houbart, Stéphane Tran Ngoc, Philippe Bréas, Jean-Michel Vinit, Antoine Tamestit, Bertrand Chamayou, Laurent Wagschal, Julien Hervé, Jean Dubé...

With his very vast general repertory, Adrian McDonnell has conducted many world premieres in the domain of contemporary music, notably new works by Lukas Foss, Maximo Flügelman, Amhed Essyad, Krystof Maratka, Jean-Michel Damase, Thierry Blondeau, Narcis Bonet, John Moran, Olivier Penard, Yves Prin, Hélène Rasquier, Kaspar Toeplitz, Francesco Giammusso, ...

Since the year 2000, along with his activities as music director and guest conductor, he is professor of orchestral conducting at the municipal conservatory of the 15th arrondissement of Paris. In October 2007 Adrian McDonnell was decorated by the French government with the Ordre National des Palmes Académiques.