Chief Conductor
Klangkollektiv Wien
Conductor in residence
Richard Strauss Tage Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Conductor in residence
Bruckner Days St. Florian
Founder
Ballot Quartet
‘Simply one of the best conductors of our times’
(Crescendo, July 2021)
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 Bruckner’s symphonies. Considered by some to be the world’s best Bruckner conductor of his generation, the CD recordings of Bruckner’s 10 symphonies under his direction at the Bruckner Festival St. Florian serve as reference recordings and have won numerous awards, including the 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 also selected Remy Ballot’s Bruckner cycle as sound samples for its major anniversary exhibition in the State Hall of the National Library in 2024. In April 2024, Remy Ballot conducted his debut with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra with Bruckner’s 5th Symphony, stepping in at short notice. This debut resulted in an immediate re-invitation to conduct Bruckner’s 4th sympphony and Mozart’s K488 in Bergamo and Brescia in the same month.
With the Klangkollektiv Wien, which he founded together with clarinettist and member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Norbert Täubl, Remy Ballot 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 also 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, Remy Ballot 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.
Starting from 2024, Rémy Ballot is appointed “Conductor in Residence” at the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. To start off a new Richard Strauss Festival Edition, Heldenleben and Don Juan will be recorded live, and published by Gramola later in 2024.
Further CD releases this year will include the continuation of a Schubert cycle (Symphonies 3 & 5) with the Klangkollektiv Wien, as well as the Trout Quintet and the Hummel Quintet together with members of the Vienna Philharmonic.
www.remyballot.com