Lionel Bringuier appointed Music Director of the Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (OPRL) from 1 September 2025
The brilliant French conductor has been appointed for a period of four years, succeeding Gergely Madaras, who will complete his second term at the end of the 24-25 season.
At the end of the 2024-2025 season, the term of the current Music Director of the OPRL, Gergely Madaras, will come to a close. By then, Madaras will have spent six extraordinarily fruitful, positive and amicable years working with the musicians of Liège, the administrative and technical team and the public, contributing in particular to the development of the Orchestra's international reputation. This is a typical length of a collaboration between a conductor and his orchestra, and it has resulted in a strong bond between Gergely Madaras and the OPRL, before he departs to take on other challenges, returning to the OPRL as guest conductor from the 2026-2027 season.
At the suggestion of Managing Director Aline Sam-Giao, and after more than two years of prepartory work by her predecessor, Daniel Weissmann, the OPRL's Board of Directors has chosen to appoint the brilliant French conductor, Lionel Bringuier, 37-years-old, who trained at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and has conducted on the world's greatest stages for 20 years. He will become the 10th Music Director of the OPRL since it was founded in 1960. This artist is no stranger to Liège audiences. He has already worked with the OPRL three times since his debut at the Salle Philharmonique in 2021. His appearance in front of the Orchestra for Shéhérazade, last October, elicited a huge wave of enthusiasm from the audience. His concert appearances have revealed a strong musical affinity between the conductor and the OPRL, in particular their shared passion for French music, the Romantic repertoire (Rimsky-Korsakov), early 20th-century modernism (Stravinsky) and contemporary works.
Together with Aline Sam-Giao, the musicians, the administrative and technical teams at the OPRL, Lionel Bringuier aims to develop an ambitious project, in terms of both repertoire and audience engagement. He also intends to raise the OPRL's profile nationally and internationally, and to raise the profile of Liège. Leading venues such as Philharmonie de Paris, Cologne Philharmonie and Concertgebouw Amsterdam have already expressed an interest in welcoming the OPRL under its future Music Director. The Festival de Pâques d'Aix-en-Provence has also shown interest, while the recording company Outhere Music (and its Alpha Classics and Fuga Libera labels) will release Bringuier's first recordings with the OPRL.
I'm very proud and moved to become Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège!
Since my first meeting with the admirable musicians who make up this ensemble in February 2021, I have been amazed by their exceptional musical and human qualities. I fell in love with them and am delighted to be joining this wonderful OPRL family. I am looking forward to the future together with the entire administrative team. I am looking forward to working with Aline Sam-Giao, whose great culture, generosity and enthusiasm for innovative ideas I've admired since we first met in Lyon. I would like to pay tribute to the magnificent work done by Gergely Madaras, and I am delighted to be taking up the torch to write the new chapter of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège.
Lionel Bringuier, Music Director Designate of the OPRL (2025-2029)
Lionel Bringuier's career has been characterised by his precocious talent: he entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 13, won the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors at the age of 19, and immediately began working with the greatest orchestras, in particular the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, where he worked for six years with Esa-Pekka Salonen and then Gustavo Dudamel (2007-2013). He has been invited to conduct the orchestras of Philadelphia, Boston, Montreal, New York, Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam, the BBC orchestras, Radio France Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, and others.
Lionel Bringuier was previously Music Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich (2014-2018) and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Valladolid) (2009-2012). He has been an Associate Artist of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, his home town, since 2019, and was recently appointed Principal Conductor of the orchestra for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons.
He regularly works with many of the world's leading soloists, and with the most important record labels and concert halls.
Lionel Bringuier Biography Read Lionel Bringuier interview (French)