Starting this season, Michel Tabachnik will play a key role as new chief conductor/music director of the Brussels Philharmonic – het Vlaams Radio Orkest. He wishes to combine the great orchestral repertoire with 20th century music in a manner that is both creative and audience-friendly. In this way he hopes to narrow the gap between the general public and contemporary music. His creed: ‘Brussels Philharmonic – het Vlaams Radio Orkest is not a museum but a platform for living music!’
Extract from the documentary 'Before the note' by Carin Goeijers (YouTube).
biography
Michel Tabachnik studied piano and orchestral conducting in Geneva. Upon graduation, he was a protégé of major conductors such as Igor Markevitch, Herbert von Karajan and Pierre Boulez. For four years he served as Boulez’s assistant, mainly with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. This experience led him to become closely involved with contemporary music and to perform many world premieres, particularly of works by Iannis Xenakis, who considered him his favourite interpreter.
Michel Tabachnik held the post of chief conductor of the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra in Lisbon, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Lorraine and the Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris. His impressive curriculum vitae includes appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Tokyo NHK, the Orchestre de Paris and at festivals such as those of Lucerne, Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence. In the operatic field, Michel Tabachnik has conducted at the opera houses of Paris, Geneva, Zürich, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Rome, Montreal and Genoa. He has been a regular guest with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, where he led, among other works, Lohengrin, Madama Butterfly, Carmen and the Rake’s Progress.
In September 2005, Michel Tabachnik took up the post of musical director of the North Netherlands Orchestra (NNO). His influence on the NNO was remarkable from the very beginning of the season: the presence of this eminent Swiss conductor made its mark in a series of positive reviews in the press. De Telegraaf wrote thus about Tabachnik’s first official concert as principal conductor: “The Swiss conductor has once again demonstrated his exceptional quality; the orchestra has never before had a conductor of this rank ... The North Netherlands Orchestra can expect great things from Tabachnik.”
In the 2004-2005 season, Michel Tabachnik conducted the Prague Philharmonia on tour at the “Cité de la Musique” in Paris. “The public gave Michel Tabachnik a long ovation”, wrote France-Soir, for “Michel Tabachnik let himself be carried by the music in a most moving, grandiose performance. Pierre Boulez came to thank his friend in person, not least for a programme in which the many-sided talent of Michel Tabachnik was shown off to such advantage. For the maestro certainly has a predilection for a repertoire that juxtaposes works from various periods. The two high points of the evening were without any doubt the overture to Wagner’s Lohengrin and Terretektorh by Xenakis.”
Another high point was his appearance with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in March 2003. The daily newspaper Trouw wrote: “He showed what astonishing heights this orchestra can reach. Under Tabachnik’s baton, the strings played with marvellous unity and precision, in the tradition that made the Concertgebouw Orchestra so famous.”
Michel Tabachnik also has close affinity with young musicians and has worked with various international youth orchestras. He was artistic director of the Orchestre des Jeunes du Québec and of the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, an orchestra he founded in 1984 and with which he maintained ties for twelve years. A respected teacher, he has led numerous masterclasses in places such as Hilversum (NOS), Lisbon (the Gulbenkian Foundation) and the conservatories of Paris and Stockholm. He has also held the position of professor of orchestral conducting at the faculties of music of the University of Toronto (1984-1991) and the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen (1993-2001).
His discography (on Erato and Lyrinx) demonstrates the breadth of his repertoire, which ranges from Beethoven through Wagner to Honegger and Xenakis. His recording of the Schumann Piano Concerto (with Catherine Collard as soloist) was chosen Best Performance of this work by the international jury at the Radio Suisse Romande.
In 1995, Michel Tabachnik was named Artist of the Year by the Italian ‘Centro Internazionale de Arte e Cultura’ in Rome.
Starting with the 2008-2009 season, Michel Tabachnik will be the new chief conductor / artistic director of the Brussels Philharmonic – the Orchestra of Flanders. In this post he will play a key role in expanding the repertoire of the orchestra as well as in building a broad and faithful audience. Tabachnik wishes to combine the great orchestral repertoire with twentieth-century music in a manner that is both creative and audience-friendly. In this way he hopes to narrow the gap between the general public and contemporary music.
www.tabachnik.org
