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Yan Pascal Tortelier Conductor

Principal Conductor, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Laureate, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

“Tortelier and the St Petersburgers conveyed the orchestration as an endlessly fascinating splurge of clever colouring...he painted instead in larger patterns and with broader strokes.” The Irish Times

“The panache with which his conducting fuses dramatic intensity with great clarity marks him out as a musician.” The Times

“The result was one of the most elegant, enveloping nights of the season. Tortelier has a refined sense of style and proportion, he communicates vividly…From the orchestra’s players, he generated an exceptional level of spontaneity and sensitivity, starting with excerpts from Berlioz...” The Sun Baltimore

Born into an intensely musical family, son of the late Paul Tortelier, he studied piano and violin from the age of four and at fourteen won first prize for violin at the Paris Conservatoire. Following general musical studies with Nadia Boulanger, Tortelier studied conducting with Franco Ferrara in Siena. Since then Yan Pascal Tortelier's career has included engagements with leading orchestras throughout Europe, North America, Japan and Australia.

In recognition of his outstanding work as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic between 1992 and 2003, Yan Pascal Tortelier has been given the title of Conductor Laureate and continues working with the orchestra regularly. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra between 2005 and 2008 and in March of 2009 he was appointed as Principal Conductor of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra for an initial three seasons.

Yan Pascal Tortelier’s orchestration of Ravel's Piano Trio was premiered in 1992 and the following year received great critical acclaim at a highly successful London Proms performance with the BBC Philharmonic. It has since been programmed numerous times, including performances at the Prague Spring Festival, in San Francisco, Tokyo and Melbourne. The work is available on CD as part of Tortelier's Debussy/Ravel cycle.

During recent seasons Yan Pascal Tortelier has worked with major orchestras in Europe and the US such as the London Symphony, Philharmonia and London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala Milan, the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Baltimore and Pittsburgh Symphony orchestras, Montreal Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Highlights of the current season include return visits to the Pittsburgh, Dallas and Houston Symphonies in the US and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and the Hong Kong and Malaysian Philharmonic orchestras in Asia. In the UK he will be working with the BBC Symphony and the Bournemouth Symphony orchestras as well as a project with the Royal Academy of Music. In addition, this season includes performances with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Valencia Symphony as well as several visits to the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra.


This is for information only and should not be reproduced. Please see full biography for further details.