Ludovic Morlot

Ludovic Morlot’s élan, elegance, and intensity on stage have endeared him to audiences and orchestras worldwide. Music director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra since September 2021 and conductor emeritus of the Seattle Symphony (where he was music director, 2011-2019), he was associate artist of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra from 2019 to 2024. He was artistic director and a founding member of the National Youth Orchestra of China from 2017 to 2021, leading their inaugural concerts at Carnegie Hall and in China in 2017 and their 2019 European tour. As chief conductor of La Monnaie from 2012 to 2014, he led new productions in Brussels and at the Aix Easter Festival including La Clemenza di Tito, Jenůfa, and Pelléas et Mélisande. In 2024-25, Morlot took the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Aix Easter Festival, and to L’Auditorium in his home city of Lyon, as well as to the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Stockholm Royal Concert Hall. They continued their acclaimed Ravel CD cycle, championed the best of Catalan composers on the orchestra’s own label, and reprised their hugely popular “Concert on the Beach,” with 20,000 live attendees and 30,000 streaming online.

Guest highlights include a return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boulez celebrations at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall with the BBC Philharmonic, and productions of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Dallas Opera and Part Two of Les Troyens at Seattle Opera, where he has had great success in previous seasons with Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, and Samson et Dalila. Morlot has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philharmonic, and Budapest Festival orchestras as well as many of the leading North American orchestras, notably the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra. He has a particularly strong connection with the Boston Symphony Orchestra: he was the Tanglewood Music Center’s Seiji Ozawa Fellowship conductor, was subsequently appointed a BSO assistant conductor, and has since led the BSO in subscription concerts, at Tanglewood, and on a tour to the West Coast. Morlot appears extensively in Asia and Australasia, notably with the Seoul Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, and Melbourne Symphony orchestras. Festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Wien Modern, Edinburgh, Aspen, and Grant Park.

Ludovic Morlot’s tenure in Seattle marked a significant period in the orchestra’s musical journey, and he still returns for several weeks each season. His innovative programming was notable for his choice of repertoire and commissions but also theatrical productions and performances outside the traditional concert hall space. Some of these projects, including John Luther Adams’ Become Ocean, Aaron Jay Kernis’s Violin Concerto performed by James Ehnes, and an exploration of Dutilleux’s music, have earned the orchestra five Grammy Awards and Gramophone’s 2018 Orchestra of the Year award. Morlot has released 21 recordings with the Seattle Symphony Media label, including Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux étoiles in 2023. Trained as a violinist, Morlot studied conducting at the Pierre Monteux School in the U.S. with Charles Bruck and Michael Jinbo, in London at the Royal Academy, and at the Royal College of Music, where he was the Norman del Mar Conducting Fellow. Morlot is an affiliate professor at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle and a visiting artist at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. He served on the jury of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2014 in recognition of his significant contribution to music. Ludovic Morlot is represented by Intermusica.